Makin' Fire
by Nelasu
Summary: Sawada Tsunayoshi lands in Earthland, Fiore. Natsu Dragneel takes him in. Kinda. Or maybe it's the other way around. slice of life-ish, au-ish, gen fic.
1. No tellin'

**i.**

 _Why_ , Tsuna thought, whallowing mentally in despair and desperation while dodging a flaming fist towards him, _am I the only one who has to deal with Reborn's randomness?_

Sighing, he dodged to the left, ignoring the foreign words thrown at him and calculating the distance he could fly away from his attacker. There was literally no point in fighting. Plus, he was kinda hungry, because Reborn thought it was a good idea to send him into another world _just for fun_.

And probably for training.

Damn that ex-arcobaleno.

This would be the last time the brunette would ignore his Hyper Intuition, because the drawbacks of ignoring his slowly worsening headache were so not worth the fact that someone was attacking him with flaming fists which weren't even Dying Will Flames.

Meanwhile, his pink-haired attacker was getting obviously frustrated. And really? Five minutes ago, he was falling to his death and the next moment, some pink-haired dude started attacking him, spewing some pretty loud words he couldn't understand.

Tsuna sighed again, dodging backwards, letting his Hyper Intuition guide him. _This is pretty one sided_ , he thought, not even bothering to switch to Hyper Dying Will Mode. Nuh-uh, not going to show this person his flames while their hands were literally on fire. This was just asking for a knockdown via Reborn. _But this has gone on for long enough, right?_

The pink-haired attacker shouted something at him, getting progressively louder and louder.

And then–

A blue cat dropped from the sky, landing beside the pink-haired dude.

"..." Tsuna could feel his eye twitch.

Why was he even surprised.

Maybe he should just let the guy burn him into ash. With that, all his problems would disappear, which were essentially Vongola Famiglia's fault anyway. The boss-in-training would die here, but he wouldn't be a mafiaboss _which he_ _didn't want to be anyway_. And it would be entirely Reborn's fault. See how that ended, ha.

.. _Okay_ , he confessed, slightly disturbed by his own thoughts, _maybe this whole 'let's drop Tsuna into another world' is pissing me off more than I thought._

Tsuna shook his head, trying to concentrate on the fight. The cat was talking to his attacker, making some pretty open gestures to him while jumping up and down. His attacker was talking right back and was gesturing just as obvious to him as the cat.

They were arguring.

Tsuna didn't know why. He was pretty sure that he kept his flames on a tight lock since he arrived here. The air here in this world was heavy with.. something. Not bad, per se, just something which didn't exist in his world. It was natural and neutral, all earth and whatever— _Enma would probably have a field day_ —however, it was making him jittery.

It was nothing like the Dying Will Flames, which were the personification of some fucked up shit— _because you would have to literally die, what the_ —and it was all unknown.

Being with Reborn, being trained by him, was skyrocketing his paranoia to a hundredfold.

So the boss-in-training was, of course, very, very wary about these flames the pink-haired attacker was spewing and his cat, which was a talking cat.

And this wasn't even the worst he had ever experienced.

The brunette snapped out of his thoughts, realizing that his attacker and their cat were now silent and staring at him in silent curiosity.

Reborn would have punched him in the face for that tiny slip.

Alas, he wasn't here, so you would have to excuse him, as he blinked at them and tilted his head, not saying a single word.

They waved.

Tsuna tensed, waved back, confused, but mentally filled with relief. He was _so_ done fighting.

The pink-haired one, hesitantly, gestured to himself and said with a rough voice, "Natsu." Tsuna blinked, not understanding, and then nodded silently as he got it a couple of blinks later. The guy nodded back, gesturing to his blue cat and said in the same voice, "Happy."

After that, he repeated his gesture and introduction.

Tsuna nodded, smiling slightly at the impatient look the other was giving him, and pointed to the cat named Happy. Reborn was rubbing a little bit of his schadenfreude to him, it seemed. "Ar-pi," he said, failing the pronunciation by the looks they were giving him. The brunette blushed, noticing that it sounded kinda like English, but not quite. Pointing at Natsu, he gave him a stink-eye, "Natsu." Tsuna gestured to himself, debating if he should tell these people his real name and then, ultimately not caring either way, settled on his nickname. "Tsuna," Rise and repeat. "Tsuna."

Natsu and Happy blinked, probably noticing the similiarities between their names. "Tsu.. na?" the pink-haired guy asked, brow furrowing a little bit and then, shrugging, "Tsuna."

 **ii** **.**

Tsuna gave a mental curse, trying to form words with more English accent out of his damned mouth, "Nnn, sssss.. sca.. scaletto.." His mouth snapped shut and he nervously inched away from his teacher, all while making sure that he didn't accidently offend the other. "Ssss.. sor–ley. S-Sori.."

Natsu gave an impatient huff, scowling deeply at the brunette. Beside him was Happy, who was laughing and making a bad job to hide it. Between them were stack of papers with various letters and words of this world's language. "Scar–let. Erza Scarlet, Tsuna."

"'M sorrey.." he mumbled, clenching his fists into the earth and, praying that the other wouldn't light the forest on fire like last time, turned away. "Sor–rey. I-I am sorrey." For being difficult, was unsaid, but very much present. "I am sor–ry. I'm sorry." Tsuna bit his lip, careful not to draw blood and sighed deeply. "Sorry.."

Closing his eyes, he wondered, distantly, if he should just give up trying to learn the language of this world. He was such an inconvenience to Natsu, who had the patience of absolutely zero, who gave him shelter, who tried to be as sensible as possible.

And he won't deny it, living in the forest was hard.

However, Tsuna thought, that he began to cherish it. He lived in a house which was pretty much deserted and had garbage in tons, but it gave off such a homey feeling, reminding him of his airhead mother, that he couldn't care less.

Natsu, the pink-haired dude, slept most of his time somewhere else, so the brunette didn't feel too guilty for basically taking his home. It also gave him an opportunity to cook something, because it was literally impossible to cook something for yourself if you lived in the house Sawada.

Admittedly, he still had trouble trying to sleep and realizing that he was truly gone from his world for the moment, after all the days that passed, but it was still better than living atop a tree.

Integrating, however, was still difficult. Tsuna had never ever left his home country before, so he had, he admitted, some really big problems in settling. Some things were the same as in Japan, like a couple of words, names and norms, but other things were completely different. Like some manners, signs, the language, which was a mix between English, Japanese and some really weird dialects, and the whole freaking country.

 _It's no surprise_ , he remembered distantly saying, _because this is another world._

Tsuna broke down crying after that moment. After that completely lucid realization that he was stuck, that he trusted Reborn with his life, but _damn it, are you a complete asshole, you freaking spartan tutor?_

Luckily, Natsu hadn't been in the house at that breakdown. Unluckily, his teacher probably suspected something, because he kept shooting him concerned looks when he thought he wasn't looking. Additionally, he had dragged him off after they had seen each other the first time.

Personally, the brunette wasn't too sure what to even think of Natsu and Happy. They were, for the lack of better words, energetic. This, coupled with Natsu's seemingly love for fights, was making them almost as exhausting to deal with as Lambo. Tsuna didn't need to understand with his extremely limited vocabulary that they loved to fight and destroy things. However, at the same time, he could see and partly conclude with his Hyper Intuition, that both of them treasured their friends deeply and sincerely. Both of them didn't say it, because the brunette wouldn't understand anyway, but when they tried to teach him how to say their friends names, both of them would smile.

Smile like they were the most precious things in their world, all while the boss-in-training was more than sure that Natsu and Happy didn't even notice that they were smiling like loons.

So Tsuna was kinda content with, well, living at this house. Even if it was lonely and he missed those shouts and explosions dearly, he shouldn't—wouldn't—give up hope.

Because he wanted to smile like Natsu and Happy, too, when he met his friends later on.

 _And they_ , the boss-in-training reflected, softly smiling, _are far too trusting._

Tsuna opened his eyes, careful not to look at Happy or Natsu when they glowed a little bit. The Vongola Gear on his finger was warming the tiniest bit up.

He shouldn't let them down, should he?

* * *

Tsuna had been crying, recently.

Not always, not even that often, _but_ , Natsu thought frowning, _once was more than enough._

It came as a surprise when he came home the first time, checking on his brown-haired freeloader, that there was a small smell of salt. Of tears. Of devastation, of despair and of hopelessness.

Natsu blinked, perplexed and with dread pooling in his stomach.

When he came upon Tsuna, in the house, the other was weakly stirring a pot of soup, orange eyes* shrouded in dark shadows and with bags under his eyes. He didn't even turn around to look at him and the mage had never, in all the days he had seen Tsuna, seen him anything other than absolutely alert and cautious. It was shocking to see the other so out of it, practically screaming hopelessness, that Natsu just froze.

Froze, because the brunette wasn't a friend, maybe, but he needed help as obviously as the plants needed the sun and maybe he was getting frustrated with teaching, he wasn't a good teacher, but he was trying _damn it_ and even if the results were minimal at best, Tsuna was the one who tried to give his all, to learn their langauge even if he was obviously struggling.

Natsu was sure that under all that nervous covering and stuttering, Tsuna was a pretty cool guy.

And, honestly, the brunette was slow with pronunciation, being outright terrible at it, but his reading/writing skills were improving in an insane rate. Natsu didn't know why and he didn't bother asking, knowing that it was pointless. It was a steady progress and then, he could ask the brunette for a straight fight. Maybe even ask for one or two pointers for dodging.

Thinking back, it had confused him greatly when he had met Tsuna for the first time, how such an unassuming guy had made a big crater into the dirt. There hadn't been any whiff of magic, so it had made him pretty excited to meet someone who could do something like that without using magic. Plus, Tsuna's clothes didn't have a speck of dust on him, even when he stood in the middle of the crater.

It had made his blood boil, seeing such finesse, such power over oneself, and he had charged recklessly in.

Later on, he had noticed that it was kinda weird that the other hadn't fought back, at all. Who would do something like that? Just after an incident one week ago, where he had almost burned up the forest, made the message clear that Tsuna wouldn't fight back.

That was why, after he unfroze himself, he hauled his charge away, fussing a little, he admitted, and dragged him to a small lake he knew Happy would be at.

Happy looked up and loudly exclaimed, twitching worriedly, "Both of you look like shit."

The brunette gave a small, startled yelp.

Natsu gave his cat and fellow guildmate a stink-eye, the same one he learned from Tsuna that made you feel like shit. "Shut up," he grouched out, patting the spot next to him and then dragging the brunette down when he gave him a confused blink. For someone who could evade all his fists effortlessly, Tsuna was a slow-thinker. Not that he could argue that he was any better. "Come, Tsuna." After he made sure that the brunette wasn't moving any soon, he turned to Happy, face dark. "He'd been cryin'."

Happy gave him a flat stare. "What'd you do?"

"I didn't do anythin', dammit!" And it was true! After that fiasco with almost lighting up the entire forest on fire, he didn't even dare breath fire near his charge! "He– I mean, just look at him!" he huffed, pointely not looking into Tsuna's direction. "He's obviously, uhh, in agony." He couldn't say pain, because it was one of the words their freeloader could understand. "Agony. Yeah. What'd I do, buddy?"

"I dunno?" Happy made a very unhappy face, but focused his eyes onto the water. "Perhaps he needs fish?" Natsu gave him one nasty scowl for that. "Perhaps give him some time. Let's ask the others!"

"Yeah, no."

"Why?" his cat hissed. "We're useless!"

"'Cuz yar plans suck!"

Afterwards, Natsu would notice that his charge had been long gone after their argument.

* * *

"Tsuna?"

Tsuna turned around, half-stumbling and half-fumbling with his pot of hot soup. "Y-Yeah..?" the brunette asked warily and Natsu noticed how the other seemed to be resolutely looking at anything other than him, which made him sigh silently. "Natsu?"

The fire mage huffed loudly, sitting down onto the couch. He ignored the flinch he earned for his fast movements, glancing at his freeloader with a friendly smile. "How are you doing?"

Tsuna beamed, probably noticing that it was a sentence he knew, because it was one of the first ones Happy taught him. Nodding, Natsu observed how careful the brunette tried to pronounce the words he had practiced.

"I-I.. I am okay," he said, smiling after it came out correctly, "h-how abut yu.. umm, you?"

"Not bad," Natsu replied softly, knowing that his loud voice would probably startle the teen. Still, it kinda annoyed him to be so cautious of his own movement, but he will manage. "Tsuna." Tsuna looked up, resignation already entering his eyes like he expected to fail. The Fairy Tail mage rolled his eyes, still smiling. Not getting a rant in his weird language from the brunette, he was making progress. "Good job. You are getting better."

Tsuna blushed and then bowed. "Th-Thanks–"

Natsu fell out off the couch, spluttering, effectively startling his charge and interrupting him. "W-Why are you bowing**?" The mage jumped up, sprinting to the startled brunette and shaking him. "Why, why, why are you bowing?" Tsuna whined and stuttered something back between his shaking, but it was garbled and in his weird language which Natsu couldn't even begin to understand. Not caring either way, he continued to shake him. "Why, Tsuna? Why?"

More garbled stuttering. Why was his language so damn hard to understand? The accent was just plain weird and it made his tongue flop in impossible ways.

Natsu huffed a little flame out, irritated. Getting enough of his shaking, the pink-haired mage let the teen go–

–and promptly found his legs swept under a kick. Shocked, he fell onto his back.

What the heck?

Orange eyes peered over him, blinking. "Um, Natsu..?" the other asked hesistantly, rubbing his neck sheepishly. Natsu blinked back, brain not understanding what the heck happened and what the brunette wanted from him. Tsuna's smile was woobly. "I– sorry. I umm, I-I'm sorry."

Natsu's thoughts were scrambled. The fire mage didn't understand why the other was apologizing. On a more important note, what the heck happened? One moment, he was shaking the daylights out of his charge, the other moment, he laid on the floor like Erza just stomped him into the dirt.

It had happened so fast, his mind was still reeling.

"What the heck," he whispered, looking up into guilty, orange eyes. "What the heck..?"

》 _to be continued_..《

 _*orange eyes; in the manga, 27 has orange eyes. in the animu, 27 has brown eyes which change to orange when he goes to Hyper Dying Will Mode. idk, both are awesome but i wanna stick to the manga so here i go._

 _**reference to the meme "why are you running?" just changed it to bowing, ya know, cultural differences and so on._


	2. No seekin'

**iii.**

Tsuna found the letter before Happy did. His Hyper Intuition finally stopped to bombard him with warnings, making his headache lessen with intensity.

Taking the letter, the boss-in-training checked the letter briefly, noting how the paper seemed to be a high quality material, and blinked at the yellow Dying Will Flame which adored the left bottom of the letter. It had been written with ink, the letters Japanese and written with elegance, making it a letter undoubtedly from his predecessor or his tutor.

He sighed, exhausted beyond relief, remembering the training session he did not even twenty minutes prior. His Hyper Intuition happily informed him that the letter was written by his tutor and signed with his flame.

The brunette, sighing once more, felt a heavy something linger in his chest, haunting him. It was like a physical thing which weighted him down, never leaving, never seeking, and he suspected, cautious but more than sure, that his friends were the reason for that.

Tsuna could visualize it, their flames, their souls, reaching out to him, but never grasping his too far away flame, desperate for the last one of the guardians, haunting him, crying out for their sky guardian—

T **H** e **Y** **A** r **E** e **N** r **AG** e **D** , **T** h **E** y ne **E** **d** t **O** **A** I **d** —

 **NE** v **ER** w **O** u **LD** t **H** e **Y** **G** i **V** e **UP** , ne **VE** r **SU** b **M** it—

The boss-in-training broke the mental connection, stumbling a little only to regain his balance after a couple of heavy huffs, dread filling his bones because of the utter fury in these emotions, the emotions and thoughts of his friends who were writhing and screaming for him. He startled as Sky Flames bubbled under the surface of his skin, yearning more strongly than ever to break free, to reach his friends _who were practically worlds away_ —

' _Ciaossu No Good Tsuna_ ,' the letter read, words curved into utmost perfection, ' _if you read this, it would mean you've survived your little trip. Congratulations for not dying_.'

Tsuna's mind blanked and his flames settled, uneasily. The letter floated in front of his face, daring him to snatch it out of the air.

' _I bet you're so confused right now. However, you can worry later, my no good student. All you have to know is that Byakuran will contact you and that you better not slack off_.'

Snatching the paper out of the air, hands shaking, flames strangely silent and unmoving, he mouthed along the words his home tutor wrote to him. It was almost like he was right beside him, whispering the same words along.

' _A warning, by the way. Don't show off your flames carelessly. I will admit that I am not sure what world you landed in, but don't get ahead of yourself, No Good Tsuna. Your friends will be in great trouble if you decide to fuck something up. Don't forget, they – and essentially I – will know if you do something extremely stupid_.'

The brunette tittered, smiling nervously, knowing that he would probably end up screwing something up anyway. His Hyper Intuition happily agreed.

' _That's all. Don't go dying on me, my no good student. I do know that, generally, the Dying Will Flames are pretty fucked up._

 _Ciao!_  
 _Ex-arcobaleno, Reborn._ '

Tsuna smiled sadly at the letter, re-reading the Japanese letters carefully until he memorized it. He missed talking in Japanese, even if talking to Happy, to get his feelings across, did help. The cat's confused expression was a funny bonus.

Softly, the boss-in-training brushed his fingers against the sparkling, yellow flame, feeling his fatigue disappear. His tutor's Sun Flames were glowing, happily and content, and he found himself smiling slightly even if it felt more like a goodbye than a fond greeting. Tsuna skipped the letter one more time, mouthing silently along and then summoned his Sky Flames.

His Sky Flames sparked to life, pure and orange as ever, powerful like it could break out any moment, but he willed it down, commanded it to smother the letter softly and not burn it. They happily, like his Hyper Intuition he noticed, obeyed his will, followed it like a lost puppy would. The magic in the air, he knew now, Natsu had mentioned it briefly, was enhancing his flames. Never were the flames more purer, more powerful, than they were now. Nevertheless, his Sky Flames were even more powerful in Hyper Dying Will Mode and boy, was that a surprise a couple of weeks ago when he tested that.

Tsuna stared at his Sky Flames, pure and alive, feeling how something lifted from his shoulders, and smiled.

Taking a deep breath, the brunette closed his glassy eyes, ignoring the yearning feeling in his chest — a side effect from harmonizing with someone and being a long time away from them, he guessed — and let his Sky Flames burn the letter until there was nothing left of it.

Alone, he stood in the home of a stranger.

No friends, no family. Just a friendly aquaintance and his cat.

 _I miss him_ , he caught himself whining, longing for his friends, his family, _I miss them._

Tsuna sank to his knees with a dull thump. He knew that he will see them again, he will, he knew he will, knew it like he knew the moon turned the tides, knew it like the day will need the night—

 _I want to go home._

But even with closed eyes, the tears still slipped through.

* * *

Gray was getting progressively more and more confused.

Everyday, for the past weeks, Natsu went out of the guild for roughly a couple of hours, making some pathetic excuse about teaching someone, just to come back either more happy or more frustrated. It wasn't a mission, he had asked Mirajane about it and she gave him a clear, and it wasn't a date, because the villagers would have probably spoken about it.

So, what was it?

Honestly, it was driving him crazy. And he wasn't even the only one who noticed! Mirajane, for all her obliviousness, had also noticed that the Dragon Slayer was getting more and more active each day. Since Lisanna's death, the fire mage had just done his own thing, being the same flame-brain as usual, but more.. passive. However, now, something was grabbing his attention, making him leave the usual brawls with the same pathetic excuse.

It made absolutely no sense, at all.

Therefore, he should probably confront Natsu about this. Nuh-uh, knowing him and himself, they would probably break out into a fight and brawl in the middle of the day. The thought was so realistic that he automatically went to the direction of the Dragon Slayer, calculating how much damage he would do to the bar.

"Hey Gray," the bane of his existence spoke up, not even turning around. Damn him and his enhanced senses, he cursed mentally while begging his thumping heart to stop being a pussy. "I need ya help with somethin'."

The ice mage glanced at his fellow guildmate, pointely ignoring the curious looks the other people in the guildhall were making. "What's it to you?" He sat down, trying to mask his overhelming curiosity. "Do you need fashion tips, or what?"

"Shut up," Natsu snapped, almost like a reflex. It probably was a reflex, not even worth thinking over. "I don't need yar sarcasm. Just gimme a hint or somethin'." The fire mage glanced over to him and Gray froze up in surprise. The other must have seen it, because is face soon scrunched up. "Wh-What?"

Immediately, the ice mage reeled back, almost throwing the stool over in his haste. He stumbled, but managed to catch himself and took a couple of steps back from the resident Dragon Slayer. The guildhall fell into an uneasy silence, even the music abruptly stopped playing. Gray felt hundred of stares on his back, but he wouldn't care anyway if this situation hadn't been so bizarre.

Because, sitting in a relaxed position and head tilted sideways, confused, was Natsu, who was blushing like a young girl.

Gray was sure the world was going under.

There was absolutely no way that Natsu, the person with the least amount of shame in this whole guild, would blush because he needed a hint or advice in romance, right?

"What?" the Dragon Slayer asked, his voice echoing in the completely silent guildhall. The blush, faint on his tan skin, was barely visible but still there. "What's with ya?"

Right?

"What's with me?" he repeated, almost falling over in the sheer ridiculousness of this situation. Gray took a deep breath, feeling some of the tension and shock leave his bones. "What's with you? You wanna have advice on a girl, or what?"

Natsu spluttered his retort out, almost falling off his stool. The black-haired mage observed this quietly, no comment made. "Wa— No! The heck?!" The other stumbled off his stool, regaining his balance like it was breathing. "Are ya an idiot? I jus' wanted t' ask if ya could tell what I'd do after havin' a nightmare!"

The crowd spluttered.

Gray turned to glare at them, making a couple of them shrink back in guilt. Such eavesdroppers.

Turning back to his rival, he arched an eyebrow, skeptical. "Nightmare, you say? I guess, I can humor you," he snorted, looking away. "You should probably drink something which will relax you. Not sitting alone and staring at a wall, I guess. You should probably also cuddle with Happy or some shit." The last part was mumbled out, no way in hell will he admit that he cuddled when he was younger. Turning back to the fire mage, he huffed, "You satisfied, flame-brain?"

Natsu nodded and looked even grateful. "I've got it. Thanks, whatever." The Dragon Slayer turned away, walking into the direction of the door. "By the way, I dunno what was with ya, but I'm runnin' a bit of a fever, so I'm gonna go." He waved, but didn't turn around. Gray swore that he saw Natsu's ears turn red. "Bye guys, squinty-eyes. Ya're naked, by the way."

"Fuck you," he replied, smiling. "Fever my ass."

 **iv.**

When Tsuna heard from Happy that Natsu was coming back again, he stopped all his activities.

Cooking, cleaning and even training weren't important as that. The brunette let his kettle fall, ignoring how it rolled loudly away, and picked the first-aid kit up. Opening it, he checked if everything necessary was in there—it was—and then tiptoed to the door. As he opened it, he was assaulted by a very familiar smell; blood.

Tsuna didn't grimace even when the faint figure of Natsu came through some trees. The other's clothes were scruffy and dirty, while some leaves were looking out of his pink hair. The white scarf looked spotless as ever, though. When Natsu saw him, he laughed sheepishly, nervous, probably because he knew he would have gotten the tongue-lashing of his life if he could say it in their language. Tsuna clicked his tongue, motioning Natsu to follow him into the house.

Inside the brunette ushered the other onto the couch. Natsu stiffly complied. Tsuna huffed in amusement at his behaviour, the contrast to his normal behaviour startling.

"Where pain?" the boss-in-training asked, not even bothering to elaborate more than that. "Where pain?" Silently, the other pointed to his left shoulder and his right side, already shedding his top. Nodding, Tsuna stepped into Natsu's personal space, not caring about etiquette after the countless times he had done that. With sharp eyes and steady hands, he lightly touched the bloody wound on Natsu's shoulder, feeling the other relax at his touch. "Pain?"

"Is okay."

Tsuna nodded, spraying some desinfectant on a cloth and lightly pressing it against the others shoulder. The cloth colored in a noticeable pink. Natsu hissed between his teeth, but otherwise stayed perfectly still. "How side?"

"Scratch," Natsu huffed, shrugging his one good shoulder. "Not bad."

"Hmm," he hummed in reply, already preparing another cloth for the 'scratch'. Yeah right, as if. Lying to his Hyper Intuition with a gash bigger than his own foot? Tsuna was already down with his patience when it came to treating Natsu's wounds. Why was the other so reckless? It was honestly perplexing for him, because Natsu couldn't even bandage his finger correctly.

* * *

Natsu was slowly getting crazy.

A few weeks ago, he had went home, internally debating whether he should buy these magical reading glasses he had heard from, when he was assaulted by a familiar and at the same time very much detested smell.

Tears.

Natsu was in front of his door before he could even think straight and wretched his door open before he could stop himself. Like an unstoppable terminator, he marched right into his house, searching for the unfamiliar smell of weather mixed into the sky.

He didn't find Tsuna inside the house, but he found Happy who was sleeping his worries away. The fire mage clenched his teeth, frustrated beyond words, and walked into the forest, letting his sense of smell guide him to a small lake.

Tsuna was standing in front of the lake, gazing into the water like it held all the answers of the world. The lack of moonlight shrouded the brunette into incomphrehensible shadows that leeched the bright color of his eyes away. Standing alone, his clothes and eyes a dull color, made him look like a being of another world.

Natsu gave a sharp bark, making the brunette flinch violently. "What'dya think ya doin'?!" He marched forward, ignoring the nervous stuttering of Tsuna, and took the wrist of the other in a firm grip, tugging him away from the lake. Making a few hand signs with his words, he dragged him with him. "It's the middle of the night, ya idiot!"

"Umm, Natsu.." Tsuna stuttered out, but didn't protest as the fire mage dragged him back towards the house. Natsu looked back, clearing his expression so that the other wouldn't be nervous of it. "I, bad d-drem, um, dream, so.. out."

Natsu almost stopped, confused, at this information. He hadn't known — _couldn't have known_ — that his charge had been having nightmares. It was such an obscure thing, nightmares, that sleep without bad dreams was basically self-evident already. Looking at Tsuna, who was swaying where he was dragged to, with dark shadows lining along his eyes and weariness in every bone, made this realization even more real.

It was surreal.

It was very much _real_.

"Why didn't ya tell me?"

And Tsuna covered, nervous and scared, stuttering and whining all the while, but he never told the truth. In these orange eyes, which looked dull without light, was a hint of steel. Not pride or arrogance, but self-confidence and courage beyond comphrension. A will, which Natsu couldn't even begin to unravel.

And under that will, the mage understood, just a little bit, how a great leader or guild master would have to look like.

"Let's just go home," he interruped the other, not even listening to his less than true words and sighed while signing gestures with his words. "We're gonna talk later."

They didn't talk about it after that.

And now, the current situation why Natsu was still getting crazy.

Tsuna, the stubborn little shit, didn't want to drink his hot chocolate after waking up from a nightmare and stumbling so loudly, that the mage had woken up. And Natsu didn't understand why he didn't want it. Was it so bad? Was it ugly? Should he change the cup?

Just communicate, damn it!

"Talk t' me, Tsuna!" the fire mage grumbled out, pushing the cup of perfectly good hot chocolate back to the stubborn teen who just shook his head, staring nervously back, but not backing off. Irritatingly, the brunette seemed to be more awake than him, blinking at him with wide, orange eyes. "Why're ya like this?" he pressed, the words slow enough to understand and he made a few gestures to emphasize his words. "Ya wanna piss me off?"

Tsuna shook his head again, getting that frustrating half-smile onto his face. "N-No, Natsu," he whispered softly, fondly, and the fire mage felt his chest warm up with an incomphrehensible feeling. "I, no w-wor–rey Natsu." He winked at him, amusement in his eyes, hands signing all the while. "I hav' Happy."

"Ya do, eh?" he huffed out, grinning, giving his charge a critical look-over. He did look better than a few weeks ago, no thanks to Happy. "Happy said t' me that ya always talk in yar language t' him." His grin widened as his gestures stepped up in speed. "Ya wanna share?"

Tsuna actually snorted, the closest he had come to make him laugh, and Natsu counted that as a victory. Even faster than Happy, ha! "No, ssss.. secrait. S-Secret." Smiling, the brunette pushed the hot chocolate away, that little shit. "H-How are yu, um, you ddddd.. dong*? Doing, Natsu?"

Natsu could feel his grin stretch to unbelievable levels that it was even kinda hurting. "I'm doin' great, ya idiot!" he exclaimed, noting how Tsuna didn't even flinch at the full volume of his voice, though, he was tensing a little bit. Progress, progress, progress! He pointed at the cup. "But I'd feel much better if ya drink the damn chocolate!"

"Nuh-uh."

"Yes-uh!" The fire mage jumped up, letting the chair clatter to the floor loudly. Tsuna jumped at the sound, but still smiled at him, watching the signs they had learnt weeks ago with rapt attention. "Ya gonna sleep or drink this shit!"

The brunette shrugged, grinning like a loon, and looked away. "S-Sorry. No understand."

"What're ya even talkin' about?!" Natsu laughed, knowing that there was no way the other didn't understand his words and gestures. It seemed like a lifetime ago that the other didn't understand the gist of it, but it were just more than roughly a couple of weeks. "Ya're lyin'!"

Tsuna looked back to him, face completely serious. The fire mage blinked, a little bit surprised by this abrupt change. However, he didn't let this detter him, seeing the clear amusement in these orange eyes. "Nuh-uh. I'na n-nuo andatan," the brunette whined, screwing up the pronunciation beyond repair. "Onsty."**

Natsu spluttered, before almost falling against his chair because of his uncontrollable snickers. That face and that miserable pronunciation were almost too much. "Aw man! That's remindin' me about yar first tries, Tsuna!" The other blushed, embarrassed, and turned indignantly away. Tsuna was still smiling, though. The fire mage grinned, baring his teeth, and didn't even bother to gesture. "Hey, but ya'd me lickin' the ground, don't forget that!***"

"Acci—dien," the brunette mumbled and blushed again, flustered now. Tsuna rubbed his neck nervously, but he didn't run away from the subject, which was even more progress. A few weeks ago, his charge would have sprinted for an excuse to avoid this topic of the insane speed he had displayed. Being a patient and sensible individual, Natsu brought it a couple of times up to resolve this accident. "It accidien."

"Accident," the fire mage corrected absentmindedly and then huffed unconvinced, grinning brightly. His hands flew energetically through the air. "Ya can't joke, Tsuna. Ya'd me literally swept off my feet."

"Happy c-can, tou."

"Too. And yes, because he sucks!" Natsu scowled and pushed the hot chocolate back to his charge. Tsuna blinked at it, quizzically, and then, shrugging, took the cup and chugged everything down in one go. Jaw dropping, the fire mage jumped up, pointing accusingly at the surprised brunette. "Ya'll have a drink competition with me later on, if ya want it or not!"

At Tsuna's very confused face, he repeated his words more slowly with a couple of gestures mixed within. Sometimes, he admitted, he forgot that Tsuna was just learning how to speak their language, because, okay, he was kinda easily scared, often very nervous and would whine like no other, but the brunette was, after that, easy to get along with.

Natsu wondered about him.

And asked.

"Hey Tsuna, how old are ya?" The fire mage blinked, as the other just directed a deadpan stare at him. Natsu knew that he had made enough gestures for the other to understand. "What?" Holding his deadpan stare, his charge pointed one finger up, then two, then three. With his motions, he started to count in his own weird langua– oooh. "Oooh. Ya can't say the numbers 'cuz ya don't know 'em." Tsuna nodded, shaking his head with a small smile. Natsu laughed sheepishly, a little bit guilty, and signed with his words. "Sorry, sorry! But ya'll tell me, right?"

Tsuna snorted, smiling, "Yeah."

》 _to be continued_..《

 _*27 had said, with butched up pronunciation, "I no understand. Honestly."_

 _**dong; it is the vietnamese money._

 _***reference to the end of 'no tellin' if some of you have forgotten that. check it yourself._


	3. No usin'

**v.**

"I'm.. f-fourtaen."

Natsu blinked, surprised, and then shrugged with a pleased smile. "Fourteen. Cool. I'm eighteen years old, I think."

He dusted his hands off near the door, rubbing his neck through his scarf awkwardly, and then huffed heavily. The B-mission he had taken five days ago, begrudgingly after Tsuna's constant nagging about not having to help him learn numbers, had been about dispatching a very elusive bandit group which had taken longer than he had thought.

Walking back had also taken longer than expected, but, he thought, that was probably because Happy always stayed back with Tsuna and didn't go with him anymore. "How're ya?"

Tsuna shrugged back, cutting onions absentmindedly into pieces. The brunette didn't turn around, probably because he knew it would result in a bloody finger. Natsu approved, silently, and noted how he didn't even have to glance at his gesturing hands to understand him. "F-Faen. Fine. Yu? Um, you."

The fire mage watched his charge carefully, noticing the hint of weariness which followed Tsuna like a rainy cloud. Natsu knew, like an annoying routine, that the other would never answer his question honestly. It was almost like he was allergic to this question.

Grunting, he sat down onto the couch. "'M tired. Where's Happy?"

"Out," he answered, stopping in his chopping. Tsuna turned around, expression worried and as open as a book. The brunette glanced at him, searching, and then, probably deciding that he was really just tired and not downright exhausted, smiled softly, his shoulders relaxing. Natsu didn't comment even if he was very much willing to do so. Did he ever look into a mirror? Tsuna looked probably even worse than him! "Yu s-sliep?

"Sleep. Nah," the fire mage snorted, scratching his head absentmindedly. "Not that tired."

Smiling, he leaned back as the other continued to cook. It was kind of cool to have someone cook for him, because Happy was a downright terrible chef and just liked to cook fish anyway. And he, well, couldn't cook. Enough said.

But, there were things he could do that Tsuna wouldn't do, like, "I'm gonna go shoppin'," he paused, looking at his charge clothes. They weren't bad and looked as good as new, but they were kinda.. weird. Natsu didn't even want to start with the weird orange bag of his, which seemed to produce infinite amounts of clothes and stuff, while at the same time, just opening itself for Tsuna. The fire mage had tried to play with the bag and it wouldn't even budge. "Ya have enough of yar, uh, stuff?"

Tsuna shot him a perplexed look, already nodding. "Yeah. Thanks." The brunette glanced at him when he stood up and yawned. Natsu rolled his eyes, picking up a bag. Such a mother hen. As if a little shuffle with a couple of bandits would tire him that much out. "Food um, r-raedi laiter."

"Ready," Natsu corrected, sighing a little bit when he heard some quiet nervous tittering. "And later."

Tsuna's pronunciation was, as always, never really perfect and was still coated with a weird accent. However, it was a tremendous progress compared to the beginning where Natsu had almost choked the brunette because of his really bad pronunciation. He was kinda regretting these days, though.

"Okay. I'm gonna search for Happy."

"Um, yes."

* * *

Tsuna wasn't whining.

He _wasn't_.

"For fuck's sake, why're ya stinkin'?!"

Getting dragged through the forest was almost routine now, while, at the same time, getting scolded was even more of an everyday situation.

Tsuna, not feeling the hand on his wrist because of the lack of blood, was being scolded by Happy, who had a disapproving look on his face, and a fuming Natsu. However, both Natsu and Happy were talking way too fast, making their words just an unintellingible glibberish. They didn't seem to notice, though, which made the brunette almost grateful for his lack of understanding. Learning the alphabet, learning simple sentences and learning the numbers was pretty hard. Even more with Natsu as a teacher who made scary faces when he was irritated.

But it wasn't like he was always studying. Physical training was also an aspect he followed, begrudgingly, suspecting that he will probably lose control of his Sky Flames if he didn't keep the training up. If petrifying on purpose was bad, petrifying them on accident should be more than downright apocalyptic.

Tsuna suspected that he didn't go overboard with his training; the training his tutor had given him and which was even more harder than his regular training.

The problem was hiding it from Natsu and Happy who were sniffing his sweat miles away and who were keeping a lookout like overprotective lions. The boss-in-training was grateful, their protective natures were honestly flattering, but were way too uncalled-for for someone like him. It was more or less like his Hyper Intuition was looking out for _them_ , which meant essentially him. Seeing Natsu come home, tired and satisfied, was making his Hyper Intuition jittery which made _him_ jittery.

So training, which consisted of testing his Sky Flames and every technique he knew of, excluding the more destructive techniques.

There was no way that he would train in the presence of his two overseers, so he had to busy Happy with some things or put him into sleep. Natsu was regulary away and would normally come back every two to four days, so he didn't have to do anything. Only, the days Natsu came back, he would come with a new sniff or a new purpose.

Meaning, he would smell something and would fuss or he would come back with a new idea which he had to try out.

So, the situation now.

"I'm _okay_ ," Tsuna insisted, not whined because he knew that the other didn't like that even if he tried to hide it. "I-I'm okay, okay?" Pushing the cat away who hovered worriedly in front of his face, the brunette felt his eyebrow twitch at their unconvinced stares. He wasn't even injured, he just stank of sweat, didn't he? Why were they like that? "I _am_ okay." And just to piss them off, he said in Japanese, "You two are even worse than the girls and they don't even take it upon themselves to deal with everything, you mother hens."

Natsu, giving him an unimpressed glare, shook his head like a mother would, but didn't stop in his wide strides. "I dunno understand ya," he muttered, absentmindedly gesturing which Tsuna followed studiously. "Ya stink of sweat, what the heck."

"Aye!" Happy agreed, expression deadpan, even though his next words were practically dripping with happiness. Again, they were too fast for him to follow, but he still heard the words "why" and "this".

Shrugging, he looked into the sky. "I'm not going to risk extra training," he answered in Japanese, knowing that he was probably paranoid about this, but still not risking it. Happy and Natsu formed confused expressions when they heard his words, which looked pretty funny with their frowns of disapprovement. Such mother hens, almost as bad as his friends. "I wonder how my friends are doing.." he mused off-topic and then gulped as he checked shortly on their connection, shuddering and paling. "They are still mad.."

But they were hopefully not doing as bad as him. Being seperated after harmonizing with everyone was still pretty painful, having deep echoes of longing and yearning in his chests for his friends. However, knowing that he will meet them again, lifted these feelings somewhat and he hoped that they will know it, too, someday.

"Or they'll know when the marshmallow stops by, I guess."

"Stop talkin' t' yarself," his mother hen #1 told him, the words finally slow enough to understand and with some mixed signing. "Can't understand a word."

"Aye," Mother hen #2 said, nodding, "Natsu's right."

Tsuna sighed, but obediently switched to their language. Japanese had a calming effect, letting him sort his thoughts and feelings. Also, just talking to Happy in Japanese had bored him easily, so he just did it more often than not when Natsu came back.

"W-Where?" The brunette cleared his throat, feeling it crack slightly at its dryness. Maybe he should have taken a water bottle with him. By the looks Natsu and Happy were giving him, they also thought so. "Where go?"

Natsu gave him a stink-eye. It was the same one he had learned from his blonde and clumsy brother, that made _you_ feel like shit.

 _A classic_ , he had said, and had given his right hand man a stink-eye. _You don't have to show it off_ , he remembered whining as his brother's right hand man had promptly power walked away, _now he thinks he did something wrong!_ His brother had laughed sheepishly and had followed his right-hand man out of the hall to apologize. It didn't stop Tsuna from copying it and using it at every given opportunity to give his lovely tutor a stink-eye. Get dunked on!*

"We're goin' home," the other grunted, voice rough from all the scolding, and sent him a warning glare. "Don't run. Away."

"Okay," he shrieked, scared, and let himself be dragged away. "Okay.."

Tsuna withered under the glare of Natsu, nervous. Theoretically, he knew the other wouldn't hurt him, seeing as _he_ had hurt the other more often than not, but it was still scary!

At these moments, the brunette had to compare Natsu with his stormy, silver-haired friend, who was, honestly, even scarier, but hundred percent more familiar. It made his head spin and not in a good way. To be more accurate, it made his chest ache and overcharge his Hyper Intuition, which had been working all the time anyway.

Having the deep ache in his heart, in his soul, was almost normal now, but having an overworking Hyper Intuition was more of a curse than a blessing.

His Hyper Intuition always informed him about various facts now, like, how Natsu and Happy were observing him like hawks or how Natsu would come from the east side of the lake, not the north side, to drag him home again.

Or how his Sky Flames were becoming stronger because of the magic in the air, having a purity which would put even saints to shame, which made his Hyper Intuition more stronger. And sometimes, it even informed him how to cut the meat so that they would have the maximum proteins, how to incapacitate some animals which lingered nearby, how to kill someone or something without leaving a single trace behind–

It scared Tsuna.

This knowledge, this power, was scary. It wasn't like Vongola's Hyper Intuition at all, which had been extraordinary perception and could be fooled, but now it was like it collected information from who knew where and _used_ it to utmost effect. That accident with him sweeping Natsu off his feet was harmless compared to the things he knew how to do now or the things he knew he _could_ do. It was honestly scary _and wouldn't stop._

And Tsuna already knew why, his Hyper Intuition happily informing him about everything that mattered to him or could be a relevance to him.

* * *

Later on, his suspicion would be proven true, even if he didn't want to believe it.

Well, since his first meeting with his tutor, he had always lived with a sense of denial, hadn't he?

Tsuna just had to look towards the future with his Dying Will.

 **vi.**

Happy wasn't so sure what happened, because he had taken a nice nap, apparently, but he knew that he had screwed up, big time.

Thinking about how Natsu would react, the cat paled, knowing that it would be the tongue-lashing of the century. And he hadn't even known, living so long with the Dragon Slayer, that he could even give a tongue-lashing at this level.

Happy reflected, staring at the empty and neat couch, that he will probably do solo missions for their money. That meant, in short, no fish until their guest had more color than the pale skin that always stood out like a sore thump.

But it was kinda weird, he could have sworn that he had cuddled with Tsuna, wide awake, listening to the faint heartbeat of the other with rapt attention.

And now, he was laying alone on the couch, no brown-haired guest anywhere to see. Therefore, Tsuna had probably taken a walk into the forest, like always. Well, Happy admitted, it was better than sitting all day in the house, only, would it kill the brunette to leave a letter?

The cat knew that the other could almost write perfectly now, with all the weeks that had already passed. Just talking was a problem, but Happy was, in fact, very content to know that they had helped Tsuna in learning the language, even if his writing and reading skills were mainly talent.

Happy sighed and summoned his wings, rapidly scouting the house and ascertaining that Tsuna wasn't in it. Though, the brunette had cleaned up the house and washed the clothes, it seemed. Happy couldn't even remember the last time their house had been full of garbage. Was it three months ago or more? It seemed a lifetime ago, probably because their guest couldn't leave a letter or just stay put.

Honestly, staying in the house was really boring, because the other just studied, cooked something, cleaned the house or read some books about things.

Perking up, an idea lit up inside his mind. Why weren't they taking Tsuna with them on a mission? It would be more exciting than staying at home, only, they had to ask the brunette first.

Immediately, he flew through an open window, trying to find a faint hint of Tsuna's whereabouts. The faster he could find him, the faster they would go onto a mission! And, staying at home with their guest was fun, it honestly was, but Happy yearned for the taste of adventure. So, it would be probably a-okay if Tsuna said yes.

Finding him, however, proved fruitless.

Happy suspected that their guest would be a terrifying hide-and-seek player, because he didn't find even a single clue about where he would have gone to. It was frustrating and he now understood why Natsu always looked like he would gladly rip out someone's throat.

The cat snorted and admitted, privately, that his partner could be fired up just with a few misplaced words, which made the expression of Natsu not that much of a rarity. Gray was a great example for that, even if it worked vice-versa. And it wasn't like they would kill each other with their magic, because the possibility of _that_ happening were quickly dwindling since the arrival of Tsuna.

Happy knew his partner's magic like no other, so it wasn't hard to figure out that Natsu was intentionally holding his flaming outbursts back. That, in reverse, made the other a little bit more prone to frustration and/or irritation, but it also sharpened his control over his magic and his temper.

It brought a side of Natsu out which could be rarely seen; not as a carefree and reckless individual, but as a caring and protective friend. It pleased Happy to see that the almost passiveness of Natsu, after the death of Lisanna, had been thrown away in favor of looking after the most troublesome person in Fiore.

Which brought him back to the present.

Happy flew over trees, searching for a familiar mop of brown and not even glimpsing it. The forest was gigantic, where could he even find a person like Tsuna? The lake had been after a couple of catches too obvious for their guest, so he had switched to wandering around the forest. Like that was safe. It just screamed that the other didn't really care to where but more to how. Snorting, Happy had the inner picture of Tsuna flying around the forest like him, probably doing a few loops for fun.

Yeah, like _that_ would happen.**

"Gao.."

Happy dropped like a rock to the sound when he saw a faint hint of familiar orange.

He zeroed on to the faint color, which was very far away from his previous position, rapidly flapping his wings so that he wouldn't lose it. Whatever made that sound, it should be near Tsuna and was running pretty fast to a more eastern direction. Happy caught up swiftly, silently, and landed on a branch.

He met wary orange eyes curiously.

"You're.. not Tsuna," he stated, blankly, looking at the orange-eyed lion with the same eyes as their brown-haired guest. "Uh.."

Its mane was a flaming mass of orange, shifting continuously and not stopping even as it jumped back, and it wore red armor on its legs with a weird crest on its forehead. Happy drew a blank, he never saw something like that before, and blinked curiously as it inched slowly away. For something so short, it had run very fast earlier.

Hastily, he spoke up, "Hey! What're you? Do you know Tsuna?"

The lion narrowed its eyes, suspicious, and didn't answer. If Happy hadn't known better, he would have said that this lion was behaving exactly like Tsuna when they had first found him. Though, compared to the brunette, its face stayed strangely solemn and hard. Tsuna's face, on the other hand, was like an open book, mostly when he was a little bit wimpy, so this contrast was kinda strange.

Happy sniffed, a little bit frustrated, and then reeled back, eyes wide. The lion jumped, startled by his reaction, but the cat didn't really care about that.

It smelled _exactly_ like Tsuna.

Like a warm, sunny day, like the rain when it flies through the air, like a far away and brooding storm, like the mist when it disperses, like lightning in the horizon, like clouds when they drift through the sky. Like the earth and warmth.

Like harmony.

"Oh no, you are Tsuna, aren't you," Happy established, shocked and only a little bit more than horrified. Not only was their guest transformed into a freaking lion, he also seemed to have lost his sense of humanity and memories. What was next? He would transform himself into a big black hole of doomness?*** Panic-stricken, he looked frantically around. "What the heck happened to you? Natsu will go nuts#, I swear!"

The lion – _Tsuna, it was Tsuna!_ – blinked, a little bit confused, still cautious but not on the verge of running anymore, and tilted his head to the side. "Gao..?"

"You can not even talk!" he panicked, borderline hysterical. "Why are you a lion? What should I do?" It was a bad day, wasn't it? First, he napped when he should be guarding their very elusive guest and then, second, Tsuna was a freaking lion! "I-I should hide you! No, I need a time machine, maybe I can prevent this!##" Happy muttered, flying through circles. There had to be a solution for this! In no way will he give up on their brown-haired guest! "I can fix this, I just need time–!"

"Happy, what're ya doin'?" Natsu shouted from the distance, not even that far away and with a certain sluriness in his speech. "Did Tsuna go into ta fores' 'gain?"

 _I don't have the time!_ he wailed and shouted mentally, glancing at the confused orange-eyed lion. Tsuna looked at him with big eyes, open and as cautious as ever. Frantically, he heard the crunching footsteps of his partner, coming even nearer and nearer to their position. _Natsu's coming, oh no, what should I do, I'm gonna work for the rest of my life!_ Turning to the sound of footsteps, the cat had an idea. It will give him the ass-kicking of his life, but it would give him time. _I can't hide him, but I can kidnap him!_

Happy flew a little bit nearer to their guest, sighing internally in relief when the lion didn't run away. Though, he was tensing and looking at him with barely hidden hostility.

He tried to clear his expression like he had seen Natsu do it when Tsuna was being wimpy again, but he failed, if the growling was anything to go by. The cat groaned, earning another jump from the lion, and then, not caring anymore because he will be toast anyway, scooped Tsuna up and promptly flew away from Natsu's startled exclamations.

The forest exploded behind him.

"What ta heck are ya doin'?!"

 _I don't know!_ he shouted, internally debating if this was even worth the ass-kicking he will receive later on. Tsuna squeaked, startled and horrified when they gained more attitude, and promptly mewled in protest. Happy felt like he kicked a puppy. _Damn it! I'm sorry, but I can't risk it if Natsu sees you!_

"Come back an' fight me!"

Hot air washed over his wings and Happy shrieked with the lion. Another part of nature spectacularly exploded again.

"I'm so screwed!" the cat swore, sweating when more fire licked at his paws. How was Natsu so fast? This was just plain ridiculous! Three months, give or take, and his control sharpened so much that he could make precise shootings to a moving, flying thing? "That's insane!" He dodged as a fireball was shot into his path. Happy groaned, flapping his wings faster to lose his very much pissed off partner. "I hope I survive this," he mused nervously, already hearing how Natsu was becoming more quieter and quieter, "because this won't end well."

The lion sent him a deadpan stare, so alike to Tsuna that Happy blinked and did a double take. "Gao."

》 _to be continued._.《

 _*get dunked on; a reference to the game Undertale._

 _**happy doesn't know that 27 can fly, however, he is imagining it and doesn't really believe it could happen._

 _***big black hole of doomness; reference to the khr manga, where 00 transformed into one._

 _#natsu will go nuts; that's a pun 'cuz natsu can be read as nuts._

 _##gintama reference; gintoki wanted to search for a time machine to prevent driving kagura over lol._


	4. No nursin'

**vii.**

Happy wasn't paid enough.

There was literally a death sentence over him, courteously of their resident Dragon Slayer, and he had to deal with the transformed Tsuna who mewled like crazy since they left the forest. Happy couldn't even begin to solve both problems and _the mewling wasn't helping_. It was even more distracting than cute, because the lion was very adamant in returning to the forest.

Big no-no. Natsu would burn him into crisp.

Along with that was an even bigger problem. The cat didn't know _how_ Tsuna was transformed.

It couldn't be an accident, because he and Natsu were fairly sure that the brunette couldn't do magic. There was never any indicator for it, so the lion should also be magic-less. It was also one of the main reasons why they hadn't introduced their guest to Fairy Tail, yet.

However, looking at the brilliantly shining mane, consisting of orange flames, was a big eye opener. Maybe Tsuna had magic, but didn't want to use it? Some kind of caster magic? He never fought back, always dodged or endured it. It was weird. This situation was weird and Happy would gladly not be a part of it.

Sadly, it wasn't that easy. Tsuna was being a nuisance, if he intented it or not. Natsu would find them in fifteen minutes flat if he didn't shut up. And that scenario was really unwanted, because Happy could still hear faint explosions in the distance. They were practically miles away and he was still raging on!

"Gaoooo, gao.." Tsuna mewled, longingly looking back at the forest. His orange eyes were glued to the horizont, his ears pulled back, and his expression was stricken. The lion glanced at him and, like a switch flipping, his face twisted into a mix of rage and pure disappointment. Happy twitched unhappily, but didn't let the other down till they reached Magnolia. The city was bustling as they landed on the rooftop of Fairy Tail. The lion landed on his paws, huffing and puffing. "Gao, gao, gao!"

Happy huffed back, indignantly turning away from the lion while at the same time stopping his magic. His wings disappeared with a silent _poof_. Sweat coated his fur, making him shake it off, but he still felt slick and dirty. Glancing at the disgrunted lion, he commented dryly, "What are you complaining? Natsu will roast you!"

" _Gao!_ " Tsuna roared, fury laced into the surprisingly loud roar which made some of the villagers pause slightly in their actions, confused. Happy, instead, cried out in pain, feeling his ears ring at the loudness. The lion gave an apologizing mewl at that, but his expression stayed the same. "Gao, gao." Huffing, his orange eyes drifted to the direction of the forest. He restlessly swung his tail back and forth where a faint shining flame adored the tip. "Gaooooo."

Happy rubbed his ears, wincing when they still rang faintly. There was definitely magic mixed into that, faint as it was. Maybe that was why Tsuna never yelled or shouted, because he knew it would result in ringing ears.

The cat turned to the lion, a magic related question at the tip of his tongue, when he noticed how the flaming mane seemed smaller. Weaker than before, like he was fading. Worried, Happy warily approached Tsuna, noting how the lion had been warm to touch, but now he seemed almost lukewarm.

"H-Hey, what is wrong?" he asked, bending down to the eye level of him. Happy tried without success to establish eye contact. "Are in pain? Are you hungry? Do you need fish?"

Tsuna mewled without answer, eyes half open, and laid himself onto his stomach. Orange eyes stayed fixed into the direction of the forest, expectant. "Gao.." he replied, softly purring. Happy jumped back as his flaming mane shrinked even further. Terrified and lost, he tried to shake the other into motion, but the lion stayed boneless, mewling to himself, "Gao.. gao, gao.."

 _No_ , he thought desperately, shaking the lion more frantically, but Tsuna didn't move an inch, _no no no no!_

"Happy, I know ya're up there!" Natsu shouted in front of the guildhall. Happy ignored him, tears gathering in his eyes as the flames shrinked even more faster. A cold lump formed inside his throat, constricting his uneven breathing. "Wait, are ya _cryin_ '? Happy?"

A hysterical part of Happy, when he heard the question of his partner, said, _no, I'm not crying, I'm feeling like **dying**._

He sobbed brokenly, tears blurring his vision of the dying lion who he couldn't even help. Instead, he probably made it even worse by kidnapping him away from the forest. What if the solution had been right in the forest from the start? Or what if Natsu could have helped Tsuna more than him? Everything seemed too late now with their brown-haired guest laying before his feet and dying.

Happy looked down, however, when a paw touched his paw. The lion's orange eyes bored into him, the color brilliant as always, and Happy reflected, hope blossoming like a flower in his chest, that maybe he had to act fast. Maybe they could still save Tsuna, who was weakly grasping his paw like a lifeline. "N-Natsu," he sobbed, holding onto that single paw and blinking his tears away, "Natsu, I-I need you here, please come to me!"

"Roger!" Natsu's voice was confident. It was the whole opposite of his shaky and weak voice that barely carried over the rooftops. "Whatever's ta matter, I'm gonna help!"

 _Everything's gonna be okay_ , Happy thought, somewhat lost, looking into Tsuna's half open eyes. He squeezed the paw, relief spreading into him when the lion squeezed weakly back. _Natsu is gonna help. It won't end like this._

"Duck yar head, Happy! This'll be quite fiery!" Happy nodded and then, remembering that the other didn't see him, yelled out an agreement, ducking his head with closed eyes so that the flames wouldn't touch the lion. There was a muttered spell, before the other yelled, "Here I go!"

Shrieks penetrated the air, probably coming from some of the villagers of Magnolia, a loud boom following soon after. The smell of fire and sufur filled the air, making him relax as he opened one eye and glimpsed his partner. Happy jumped up from his position, frantically and very happily summoning his wings, and crashed into the mage's chest. "Natsu!"

Natsu was thrown back by the force, but he didn't fall off the edge. Arms circled around him, making him sigh contently into the warm embrace. "Whoa! What's wrong? Why're ya alone on the rooftop?"

"What do you mean?" Happy looked up, expression crunching up as he remembered why he had called the other in the first place. Dread penetrated his bones, washing his happiness away. He softly distanced himself from the fire mage and looked up into the confused face of his partner. "Natsu! I need your help! Tsuna has transformed into a lion and now he's dying!" When Natsu's expression stayed blantantly confused and blank, he felt frustration building up within him. "Why're you looking at me like that? Tsuna's in danger!"

"Um, Happy," the other began, rubbing his neck with an awkward smile and looking away, "I saw 'im. Tsuna's at home."

And Happy's mind blanked.

* * *

 _It's one thing to train and lose sight of your partner_ , Tsuna thought while pacing through the house, expression solemn, _but it's very different if your partner get's kidnapped._

Losing sight of Nuts* was normal. While he trained and went through his routine, the lion cub could go around and inspect their surroundings.

Tsuna wasn't stupid enough to not check his surroundings before training. That was why, when Nuts didn't come back a couple of minutes later, Tsuna knew something had gone wrong. However, he didn't check, because Nuts could probably kill everything that lived in the forest himself, so that explained that.

Sighing, Tsuna sat down, patting the beanie that sat snugly on his head. In the middle of spring, it seemed, the beanie was a rare sight and would gain him a couple of weird glances. Not caring either way, probably because he was in Hyper Dying Will Mode, he crossed his arms.

 _I hope Nuts is alright_ , he thought, staring at his red gauntlets which adored his arms, _I can stay in Hyper Dying Will Mode, but the distance is probably an important factor for Nuts. Hopefully, it does not affect him too much._

Meeting Natsu on his way back had been a surprise, but an expected one, Hyper Intuition happily stating that the other would arrive. That was why he had to wear the beanie, hiding the flame on his freaking forehead. The gauntlets were easier to hide, probably because he just took them off. Easy peasy.

 _Nuts, wherever you are, I hope you're okay._

 **viii.**

Happy wasn't okay and Natsu didn't know why.

The fire mage was fairly sure that he had met Tsuna on his way to Happy. The brunette had been strangely solemn and expressionless, but there had been no mistaking that eye color or smell. So Natsu was honestly perplexed what had affected his partner to the extend that the blank and glazed up look stayed on his face.

"Happy, what's wrong?" he asked, kneeling down to his guildmate. "What did ya see?" The other didn't react, still looking into the distance like he was searching for something. Sighing, Natsu straightend and scooped his partner up, jumping from the rooftop while trying to find the scent of Tsuna. Only, he didn't find anything other than Happy's fishy scent. There was literally nothing other than that. "Maybe he has made a mistake..?"

"I didn't," Happy mumbled, lowly. Natsu glanced at him, not stopping in his steps, but not getting faster, either. His partner continued after a couple of sniffs, "I saw him. He smelled like the weather and earth." Tiny paws clenched into his jacket, trembling, as the fire mage continued his march to his home. Pressing his lips together, Natsu tried to tune out the awful smell of misery and desperation which streamed from his partner. "Tsuna was.. he was fading."

Just like Lisanna.

The unspoken words hit the fire mage like a ton of bricks. Horrified, he almost missed a step and fell over, but managed to save them just in time to stumble a little bit. The various implications in these words were too many for him to think over.

Clenching his teeth together, Natsu advanced more faster. "What do ya mean? I didn't smell anythin' kinda like Tsuna."

Happy sniffed, "I don't know why.. But the lion smelt exactly like T-Tsuna." The blue cat sobbed loudly, hiding his face, body trembling like a leaf. "I was literally _there_ and I couldn't do anything! The same eyes, the same attitude, the s-same smell!" he yelled, his voice cracking slightly, and then, he slumped like all fight had left him. "It was him. I swear it was Tsuna. There is no other way.."

"Hush," Natsu reprimanded quietly, pressing the other more firmly against him. The trembling didn't stop, though. The fire mage doubted that it was because of the cold. "I believe ya, okay? I believe ya," he whispered softly, as Happy began to openly bawl, "I believe ya."

* * *

 _In retrospect, ta situation is kinda weird_ , Natsu noticed wearily, carrying a sleeping Happy in his arms as he approached his home, _I mean, what're ta odds that Happy an' I meet someone with ta same eyes an' the same smell as Tsuna? Granted, in Happy's case, it was a lion, but even ta Tsuna I encountered today was a little bit weird._ The fire mage sniffed, confirming that the brunette was in the house and cooking some stew. _So, does that mean that one of 'em is fake or both of 'em?_

Despite his wandering thoughts, Natsu didn't hesistate to throw his door open and march right in. If the Tsuna in their house was a fake, he would deal with him right here and right now.

The only reason he wasn't confronting and battling the possible fake was, because he couldn't risk it with Happy like that. Knowing that the other had honestly thought that he had let the brunette down was enough for him to hold his temper.

Loudly, the fire mage stepped into the house, hearing a familiar shriek in response. Natsu grinned, but didn't relax, even as he heard the other fidgeting. "Hey Tsuna! What're ya doin'?"

Tsuna stood up from behind the couch, expression deadpan, and hands on his hips while the rings on his fingers jiggled slightly. The brunette looked at Happy in his arms, questions in his orange eyes, but he didn't comment. "Natsu. Food r-rea–dy." Worriedly, he glanced at Happy. Natsu tried not to stare. The other looked like always; brown hair, orange eyes, weird jacket**, orange-white shoes and rings. "Happy, um, tou..?"

Even the smell and his voice were the same. The stutter, the weird pronunciation, the same deadpan. There was no mistaking it. This was definitely Tsuna. There was no way this wasn't Tsuna.

"Nah, he'll sleep," he assured as he relaxed and gave some one-handed signs. Orange eyes followed his hands avidly, like always. "I think he worked 'imself up."

Tsuna raised an eyebrow at that, already half-turning away. His worried expression didn't fade even though his words seemed nonchalant. "Happy d-do? Why?" The brunette stepped outside, going to a campfire he had build behind the house, inspecting the food he had cooked critically. Natsu followed him, after he had dropped Happy off onto the couch. There was no reason to discuss the happenings of today with his sleeping partner. "Yu spice?"

"Yeah." Smiling, he dropped on top of a log, straightening his jacket. There were still big tearstains on it that he must have missed. "Happy met a lion today," he told the other with an absentminded gesture, openly staring for a reaction. However, the brunette only gave him a bland half-smile which fell flat in contrast to his worried expression. "I think," he murmured, trying another route after realising Tsuna didn't have anything to say, "that he was jus' imaginin' it." Upon hearing that, the brunette gave him a wide eyed stare. Natsu returned the stare with his own, smiling and signing all the while. "I mean, I didn't even smell anythin'." And just to finish it off, he added, "He must be mistaken."

Tsuna squaked and reeled back from him. The stew was moved away from the fire before it burned over. "B-But Natsu," the other whined softly, head turned away, "Happy no r-rike ceats.."

Natsu's mind drew a blank. Like? Cat? "What?"

"W-What?" the brunette stuttered, red shining on the tips of his ears. He fidgeted with the pot, carefully letting the leftover water out into some trees. "I-I um, Happy no l-liku uh.. g-girls.. sou why rrr.. l.. l-l-lion?"

"What?" Natsu repeated, dumbfounded. "What're ya.. Wait," he grunted, realizing what the other maybe meant, "do ya think.. Happy was flirtin' with a lioness?" Now it was Tsuna's turn to give him a blank stare. Sighing, the fire mage took a paper from under the log and wrote the words for "girl" and "lion" next to each other. "Lioness is a female lion." When Tsuna nodded, Natsu moved the paper away. "So ya think that Happy was flirtin'?"

Blushing, the brunette nodded hesistantly, twindling his thumbs while waiting for the stew to cool off. "Why mention?"

"'Cuz Happy thought ta lion was ya." Natsu snorted at the horrified look directed his way. He shrugged, trying to find an indicator that Tsuna was lying or hiding something. "The lion had ta same eyes, same smell, same attitude. Of course he thought it'd be ya."

Frantically shaking his head, Tsuna took some plates out of a bag. "N-No way.. I forest, umm, no meet Happy.."

His charge made an embarrassed noise, ducking his head away. Some emotions the brunette displayed were faintly reflected in his smell, so Natsu knew he was sincerely feeling like that. It was also kinda funny, at the same time. As Tsuna began to set the wooden table and try to hide his red face, the fire mage looked back through the window at Happy's sleeping form.

"Happy tired?"

Turning back towards the brunette, Natsu grinned. "He'll be okay," he assured, grin softening to a smile when Tsuna gave him a woobly smile back. Signing rapidly his words, the fire mage huffed proudly. "Happy's strong, ya know?"

"Yeah," the other replied softly, looking at the sleeping cat with a wistful and fond gaze, "I knouw. Know."

* * *

Nuts wasn't dead, Tsuna knew he wasn't, but he couldn't pinpoint his location.

It was as if the lion cub had just disappeared into nothingness. Only, this was probably not the case. If Nuts had been in great danger, his Hyper Intuition, which was too strong for his liking, would have informed him about it.

Morever, Nuts could have probably obliterated everything that stood in his way. Tsuna had stayed in his Hyper Dying Will Mode as long as physically possible, so it wasn't the case of courage.

 _But perhaps, it had been the case of circumstances_ , he thought, absently fiddling with the rings on his finger, one in which Nuts wasn't in anymore, _Nuts is strong. I trust him to do the right thing in situations._

It wasn't hard to predict that Happy and Nuts had met each other, seeing as he knew the blue cat had kidnapped Nuts, but why hadn't the lion cub simply ran away? Surely, Nuts could have outrun the flying cat or just hid. He was smart, he was a small little lion cub who could crush the whole forest like nothing.

There had to be an important point missing, something which made Nuts stay instead of run away. Not running away, staying with Happy..

 _Nuts was protecting him._

The realization, which felt faintly like dawning horror, fell onto Tsuna with every insecurity he had collected in this world.

Absentmindedly, he noticed how his Hyper Intuition rang, warning him that he was steps away from having a mental shock, but the boss-in-training ignored it. The world stopped moving, his eyes not straying away from the ring in which his partner had resided. Nuts had been protecting Happy, staying with him, prioritising his safety before his own, then–

Nuts was _gone_.

And Tsuna was more alone than ever in this strange world.

》 _to be continued._.《

 _*nuts; instead of natsu, na-tsu or nat-tsu, let's just stay with the english one. tbh i like natsu more but here's already one so here i go._

 _**weird jacket; its a hoodie._


	5. No achin'

**ix.**

Nuts was gone, but wherever he was, he wasn't in danger.

Happily, his Hyper Intuition informed him that the lion cub could probably kill everyone he will encounter. Tsuna shuddered, trying not to visualize it. Bad enough that he had nightmares where he, as a powerhungry maniac, killed everyone he valued, adding Nuts to that would just worsen them.

Sighing, the boss-in-training wondered, wearily, where his partner was and when he will see him again. Nuts was probably freaking out, wondering how he was still there without his flames to fuel him.

 _I think I lost more than fifty percent of my battle power_ , the brunette mused, staring at his two rings which adored his fingers, _with Nuts gone, I'm likely to be standard here, right?_ His Hyper Intuition disagreed, quite madly, he noticed, and informed him that he could probably still trash some amount of the world to the ground before someone or something managed to kill him. Paling, Tsuna shook his head, trying frantically to dispell the thought. _No, no, no! I don't wanna know that! And I don't want to fight!_

Currently, his Hyper Intuition was getting more morbid.

It was roughly a couple of days ago that Nuts had gone missing, but the difference in simple facts and the moments where Tsuna honestly thought that his Hyper Intuition wanted him to do something, preferably annihilate or simply prepare for apocalypse, were getting more and more frequent. Probably, his friends were also a factor in this, seeing that they were still, even after all these months, mad. The boss-in-training tried to avoid the connection with his friends as much as possible because of that, least he will fall into rage, too.

"Why can't I catch a break," he deadpanned outloud in Japanese, not caring when Happy, who was watching him like a freaking zombie, twitched. There was some light shuffling, probably the cat moving so that his limbs didn't tire out. Tsuna sighed, shaking his head. "He's so obvious.."

After the not so misunderstanding between them, the blue cat had went even clingier. It was borderline impossible to do something now, except training his Sky Flames, without someone watching him. Tsuna had even overheard Natsu suggesting that they should ask their "guildmates" to watch over him, whatever "guildmates" were.

It was quickly shot down, however, when Happy had informed the other that he couldn't use magic and therefore, didn't have any requirements to even enter the "guild" or join the "guild". Personally, Tsuna thought the blue cat was just possessive, seeing that it didn't matter if he could do magic or not. An overseer was an overseer.

Honestly, it was getting plain ridiculous. Both of them smothered him like no other before, except his mother, telling him not to go out without writing a letter, not to do all the chores, not to do everything by himself because they could help, not to do anything which broadened his freedom.

Just, getting protected and sheltered. It made him almost happy, reluctant as it was.

And it made him feel _useless_.

Tsuna didn't ask what Natsu's job was, but he knew it was very much magic related. The boss-in-training couldn't cast a spell – of course he couldn't, it wasn't a lie because Sky Flames weren't magic, plus he couldn't grasp the earth energy – and he very much doubted that he would like to earn his money via violence and fights like Natsu. But Tsuna knew what responsibility was, knew it like no other, and he refused to be sheltered when he knew that he could be searching for a way back home, a way to get Nuts back and a way to get his crazy life organized.

Just the how was a big question mark.

With a sigh, he laid down onto the couch, closing his eyes. It was no use thinking about his depature now, it seemed. There were still things he had to do before things should happen, things which could be thought about at a later time and not in the middle of the night.

And as he laid there, the moon hung in the sky, glowing softly. Only, sleep didn't come as always, which was frustrating. There hadn't been a single night with decent sleep, not because the couch was uncomfortable, but because of his wandering thoughts and Hyper Intuition – one of which was thankfully blabbering stuff which he already knew now.

Sighing deeply, the brunette pulled the blanket over his head and slept like always quite pitifully.

* * *

Not even three hours later, Tsuna woke up with a scream stuck in his throat. His typical nightmare where he destroyed everything he ever valued, played across his closed eyelids.

With a quiet groan, the boss-in-training fell back onto the couch and relaxed his clenched fists to scrub the sweat on his face away. Lowly whining, he kicked the tangled blanket away, lightly squinting when the sun shone into his eyes, and glanced to the side where he saw a sleeping Happy, sitting with crossed arms in the hammock. Tsuna grimaced, feeling guilty for the cat's uncomfortable position.

Idly, he wondered if he should sneak out and train again.

He softly paddled out of the couch, making sure to avoid all of the squeaky floorboards that his Hyper Intuition helpfully pointed out, and grabbed his orange bag that his tutor had thrown after him. The custom made bag, courteously made by some of his friends, wasn't infinite, even if it seemed like it was. The bag had a compressed space, not unlike a box weapon, which made it inconvenient in the factor organization, but very useful in transporting.

Many of his clothes, personal things and useful stuff were in there, not so neatly packed away inside the bag. If there was one thing he couldn't part with, it was this bag. So many memories and good thoughts were inside the bag, making him sigh wistfully.

So many memories, so many friends which weren't here right now.

Tsuna yawned lightly, tiptoing around squeaky floorboards, and opened the door. Taking one step outside, he thought sleepily, _I guess a distraction is alright. I have enough time to jog and it's no use trying to sleep now._

"What are you doing."

The brunette froze quite literally in his step, not expecting Happy to be awake.

Sheepishly, he noticed that his Hyper Intuition had been blaring at him for quite some time that the cat had woken up. Seemed like he was way too sleepdeprived to notice something as small as that. Tsuna shrugged, too tired to be annoyed with a small detail like that.

"I-I go outside," he replied to the cat, slowly signing his words even though he knew that Happy didn't understand sign language or saw it with his back to him. "Fresh air."

Tsuna heard an exasperated sigh from the blue cat in response to that. "Why are you like this," he asked, completely deadpan. The boss-in-training sweatdropped at this question. He didn't answer, not so sure if he should feel insulted or not. There was nothing criticizing about him, was there? It wasn't like he was telling them to protect him, honestly. "It is barely dawn. Why are you like this, Tsuna."

The brunette _always_ woke up at that hour! Who tried the cat to joke with? Happy was probably just as tired as him, seeing that the cat more often than not slept very fitfully since a couple of days ago. Upon hearing another very exhausted sigh, Tsuna conceded defeat, cursing his soft heart. He closed the door, turning around to shuffle to the couch, preparing himself mentally to stare at the ceiling for a couple of hours and think about the reason for life.

Just as he was to reach the couch, having already put his bag away, Happy's quiet voice stopped him, "Tsuna?" Perking up, the boss-in-training met the tired eyes of the blue cat. "Can I sleep with you?"

Tsuna's face colored, embarrassed. Turning his red face away, aware of curious eyes studying him, the boss-in-training tried to keep his cultural shock under control. If someone had asked him that while being aware of the Japanese culture – or simple common sense! – he would have smacked them into the wall for their lack of appropriateness.

"I-I," he stuttered, clearing his throat when his voice came out pitched. Boy, this was difficult. "Y-Yes uh, yu can, Happy." Tsuna ignored the questioning gaze, settling himself onto the couch and opening his tangled blanket. "Yu sure? I mmm.. m-move."

Happy beamed and jumped onto the blanket. "I do not mind!" the other yelled cheerfully, crawling over to his chest while Tsuna tried not to flinch at his motions. It was very much uncomfortable. Cuddling while awake was alright, but while sleeping made him feel very vulnerable. However, the brunette didn't say anything, knowing that it would ruin his happy mode. Happy settled himself next to his head, his ears tickling his chin. "Is this alright?"

"Yes," he lied, because it honestly wasn't. Only, Tsuna still draped the blanket over both of them, internally sighing in quiet envy when the blue cat instantly fell asleep. That didn't even make sense. Lucker.

Closing his eyes, the brunette fell deeply into his thoughts.

 **x.**

Erza was curious.

More curious than she liked to admit, because she had never ever seen the brunette in Magnolia before, who was nervously slithering beyond the crowded areas of Magnolia, carefully observing every passerby, but never coming nearer than necessary.

Normally, it would be quite suspicious, Magnolia was a large city after all and prone to attract trouble, only, the other was politely keeping his distance, his face showing every emotion in broad daylight. If she had to decide who in Magnolia was a honest person with his emotions, it would be a hard choice between Natsu and him.

So, Erza was curious.

And _intrigued_.

Who was this person, who observed every move of the passerbys' with sharp and analyzing eyes, branding them into his brain like his life depended on it?

In addition to that, she could have sworn that she had never seen such face features before, but the people on the streets didn't look twice into his direction. So knowing that, it should be easy to approach him, calling him out and getting into a friendly conservation.

But it wasn't easy.

At all.

Despite his small statue and baggy clothing, which looked weird by the way, he was fast and more importantly, he was very slipperly. If Erza was honest it almost seemed like he was avoiding her advancements on purpose. But that was impossible, because he was clearly looking into another direction, eyes not even glancing to her. However when she came nearer, he obviously made some mental choice that he didn't want to stay at this place any longer and he would go away.

Go away from _her_.

The redhead was losing patience and she knew it like she knew the sky was blue.

Was he mocking her? Was he holding a grudge? If there was a way to announce her presence more badly than ever, it would be with a fight and an ill-placed impatience. However, she felt her self-control rapidly slipping when the brunette promptly walked away from her.

Again. And again and again.

Hypothetically, Erza knew that self-control was essential and very important inside the magical community since just ten percent of humanity had magic. So it should be a given to hold herself back, to not storm over and violently tackle the brunette who was getting further and further away like an annoying snake. But, as much as she restrained herself, reality looked different and was different. It was almost inevitable, the clencing of her fists and the audible grinding of her teeth. She had wasted hours for this, this opportunity, and if she had to wait for more hours, she would snap.

Scowling, the redhead squished herself through the crowds, effectively cutting the way to the other in half with a few well placed jabs into the nearest people. They, unlike the person she was following, didn't dodge in time and leapt away with some stiftled yelps and half-hearted cursing.

* * *

Crinkling eyes were the first thing that greeted him when he stepped into his house, two small, blue paws soon following after.

"What're ya doin'?" Natsu asked dryly through the paws that squished his face, feeling like the sentence was getting way too familiar, and closed the door with an absentminded gesture. The owner of the paws didn't answer, big round eyes staring into his eyes relentlessly. "Happy, I'm gonna punch ya if ya don't let go."

Happy opened his mouth. And then, he began to salivatate.

Natsu felt strangely violated.

There was a light shuffle inside the house, brown hair popping up behind the couch and not shortly after that a sheepish Tsuna. The fire mage glanced at his charge, silently trying to convey his cry for help while signing as obvious as possible in the faint light of the moon. _SOS, help is needed._

Luckily, the other understood what he wanted since his sheepish expression changed into a sympathetic one. "Ddd.. d-drunk," the brunette stuttered out with his heavy accent, making a hand gesture to the blue cat that was still holding his face in a vice grip. "I am tou.. umm, too uh.. rr.. ra.." Tsuna resignedly signed the word for "late", looking embarrassed at having to resort to sign language because of his difficulty to pronounce the "l" letters.* "Um, yeah. Happy drunk."

Natsu slapped the paw to the side that tried to invade one of his nostrils. Yeah, no. Yuck. "Why?" Swatting the wing that flattered his scarf almost off, he scowled deeply. He was exhausted after a tiresome mission and wanted nothing else except to lay on his hammock. This was not helping in any way. "Why's Happy drunk?"

Happy squaked, his pupils expanding in the darkness like he was on catnip. It was fortunate for the fire mage that he could see very well in the darkness, because he was sure that he would have missed the precise and fast signs that Tsuna rapidly signed in an efficient fashion.

 _Stranger with bottle, gave Happy, Happy drunk. Go wild._

"What? Go wild?" Natsu repeated incredulously, holding his blue cat as far away as physically possible. Happy was relentlessly blabbering, short paws trying to grab him without any visible progress. "How wild?"

His charge winced lightly, so subtly that he would have missed it if not for the slight grimace that flew over his expression and vanished just as fast. And upon seeing that, the fire mage was more than instantly suspicious. It was surprisingly hard to read the body language of the other, sometimes, so that his enhanced senses were more valuable in reading the other than he had anticipated.

Like now.

Eyes flashing, he sent his charge an unconvinced look.

"Nothin' here is broken an' I would have smelled it if there was fire," the fire mage enumerated sharply, gazing at the stuttering brunette that spluttered poor excuse after poor excuse. "So nothin' of a thief." Admittedly, the excuses were even understandable and not in his weird language, not that it helped in any way. Resolutely ignoring the untruthful words, his eyes racked over every nook and cranny inside his house. "Ta door isn't broken an' I see no sign of violence anywhere. Except," he mumbled, looking at his blue cat in his hold, noting the unblemished skin and no injuries whatsoever. Then his gaze landed on his charge, freezing the teen like an animal caught in sudden light. " _You_."

Tsuna squeaked. He made a step back, almost tripping in the darkness. "N-No–"

"Show me yar arm–" The fire mage halted and then blinked, squinting at the other with concentration. Long sleeves with no room to see anything underneath. Suspicious. "No, yar arms. Show me yar arms!**"

Forgotten was the salivating Happy that happily sucked onto his naked shoulder, his attention instead locked on the fully clothed form of his stupid, stupid charge. If there was one thing Natsu could say with certaintly, it was a.) the other was ridiculously stupid and b.) he was also a little shit. Both points seemed to fit this situation perfectly.

"I am fine!" Tsuna insisted, inching back and obviously disputing his words like a hypocrite. Plus, nervousness was dripping from his scent, further exposing his lie. "Nuthing's b-bad!"

Natsu felt his patience snap.

" _Strip_!"

Predictably, his charge bolted.

* * *

The moment Natsu and Happy came through the door, both of them sporting visible bruises, faces strangely blank and a visible bulge inside both of their bags, made all the brawls inside the guild instantly stop, the people who brawled like crazy instead choosing to stare at the blue cat and fire mage.

Thus, an awkward silence decended upon the guild, making some members squirm in discomfort.

Mirajane, bless her soul, was one of the first ones to unfreeze, approaching the pair that sat themselves into the first benches that were empty. The white-haired barmaid gave both of them a smile that spoke of her confusion. "What happened?"

Happy looked up at her question, showing his fellow guildmates that his pupils were wide and that his complexion was quite pale, but his mouth stayed shut. The pink-haired mage, sitting hunched and staring at the table, didn't even look up, his form motionless.

It freaked them out. This silence, this behaviour.

Mirajane didn't know why, but she felt like she was poking a sleeping beast, somehow. Still, her curiosity and her concern remained. The months since the strange behaviour of them and ridiculous excuses started piled on and on. Therefore, it seemed like it escalated; this "teaching someone" and "looking over a little shit".

"Um," she started hesistantly, carefully choosing her next words that hopefully made the two of them react in some way, "is it about this.. person you two are teaching, Natsu, Happy?"

"No!" Happy shouted, though, from the way his eyes darted to the door, as if he expected the person to show up, said otherwise. Frankly, every person in the guildhall could say that it was a big lie, so obvious it wasn't even worth calling a lie. The blue cat still shook his head, looking even paler in the light. "Don't.. It's not them.."

And wasn't that concerning? Both, normally bright and reckless, were now reduced to mere silent and blank husks.

If Mirajane wasn't sure that both of them could overcome this themselves, she would have told this to the guildmaster. Whoever – or whatever – could leave such an impact on both blue cat and Dragon Slayer promised to be an interesting person, surely.

Still, Happy's words were quite weird.

Mirajane ignored the quiet mumbling behind her from the other members, instead choosing to sit down next to Happy and smile inguldently. "I see, I won't ask again." _For now_ , she added silently inside her mind. "However, can I ask what these buldges inside your bags are?" Leaning a little to the side, she spotted the obvious bulge that showed itself in Happy's blue bag. "Is it fish?"

"N.. No," the cat replied with great hesistance, grabbing his bag which motions she followed with an observant eye, "it's not.. fish."

Curiosity peaked, she asked, "What is it, then?" Mirajane gave a bright smile when the blue cat shot her an unsure glance, body tense and cautious. "I won't bite. Can I see?" She looked to the motionless Dragon Slayer, still smiling. "Is it okay if I see it?"

Natsu stayed silent.

"It's just f-food," Happy spoke up, trying to sound nonchalant while failing miserably since his voice cracked a tad bit at the end. As she turned to him, perplexed, she heard how the cat commented dryly to himself, "I can't believe he packed us food.."

The white-haired barmaid startled slightly at these words, remembering, quite a few years ago, a white haired girl giving a pink haired boy a box full of food, filled to the brim and cutely decorated.***

It had been an adventureous day and had been filled with fights and laughter.

It had been a good day among many other days.

However, Lisanna was dead. And since then, the packed food stopped like the bandaged injuries.

Distantly, Mirajane remembered that she saw Natsu with a bandage aid not too long ago.

She wondered if this person, whoever they were, was as kind and friendly as her dead sister and if, maybe, they knew about the rememberance that the packed food held for them.

As it was, she wouldn't ask.

 _That explains their behavior_ , she mused as she stood up and went behind the bar again, ignoring the startled looks her fellow guild members threw to her. Mirajane tried to smile, to reassure the others that everything was alright, but felt the heaviness in her chest almost choking her. Her sister's death was so long ago, however, it still affected everyone the same. _But I do wonder where the bruises come from._

》 _to be continued_..《

 _*l letters; 27 has trouble pronouncing l letters cuz they are variants (allophones) of the same sound (phoneme) in japanese. it's not racist, it is true. he **can** pronounce them, though; he said "laiter" and "like"._

 _**show your arms; if you readers are wondering, natsu has correcly deduced that happy scratched 27 up. thats all. 27 tried to hide it, though._

 _***packed food; 27 has made them food, as you readers already guessed. lisanna, in this fic, had also made natsu and happy food in the past. i mean, why not? i can totally picture her doing this. also, natsu and lisanna wanted to marry anyways, so it is legit. of course, they said that as kids, so don't get ahead of yourselves._


	6. No bein'

**xi**.

"Let's do this one."

Happy shot his partner a flat stare, almost wishing that Tsuna was with them at the guild so that he could smack the other for his stupidity. But as it was, their guest had firmly disagreed to go to Fairy Tail with them, muttering something about a stalker and some groceries.

Really, if the brunette would just ask them, they would handle that so-called stalker. Natsu had even bet that Erza would run herself into insanity before the other would ask for help. Happy, on the other hand, was quite sure that Tsuna would cave first since his wimpy attitude foretold that his tolerance to something like that would be low.

Therefore, it was obvious who would win.

"Six hundred thousand jewels?" Happy asked dryly, pointing at the request that showed a strange creature that looked out of the water.* Six hundred thousand jewels were proudly displayed, a humoungous reward for a request that just asked for the creature to be caught. "I don't think that he would like that."

The fire mage snorted amusingly, looking quite smug as he crossed his arms. "Heh, ya think?" He grinned, teeth pearly white and sharp, a bandaged shoulder shrugging slightly. "That's why we'll do this one."

"You _want_ him to stop the packed lunches**?" Happy glanced at his partner with a shrewd look, blinking innocently. Natsu, as expected, spluttered unelegantly, vehemently denying such an idea. "I know it was an one time thing, because he let me drink alcohol, but then it's more for me, I guess."

"Yar attempt's lackin'," Natsu commented dryly, ignoring the curious looks his splutter rewarded him. With an eyeroll, the blue cat conceded slightly. It wasn't his best attempt, yet, but it still made the other stumble, so that made it a win. "Tsuna's just home everyday. It's unhealthy, right?"

"Yes, it is," Happy snorted, feeling a little bit ridiculous to answer such a question. Everybody knew that it was unhealthy to sit inside the house everyday, but had it killed someone because of that? Probably and hopefully not. "But searching for this thing? You're barely an A-class mage."

"It doesn't ask for more than a B-class mage," the Dragon Slayer countered annoyed, eyebrows wiggling in a familiar irritated fashion. "I'm more than capable."

Happy sneered tauntingly, teeth and all. "I doubt it. You'll just scare him." Which was true, by the way. The blue cat was more than sure that even though Natsu was trying with all his heart to integrate Tsuna into Magnolia, a mission wasn't the safest way to do that. "Tsuna is a pacifist, you know that, right?" Seeing the crunched expression on his partner's face, almost resembling a face someone did when they ate a raw lemon, made it glaringly clear that, no, Natsu hadn't known that their guest tried to avoid violence. "You're hopeless."

"Ya suck!" Natsu yelled loudly back, huffing. A frown adored his expression. "I didn't know, 'kay? But he has these crazy moves–"

"He never shows his moves even after stumbling over a kettle," Happy interrupted with a raised eyebrow, observing the frustrated furrow on his partner's forehead. Sighing, he added, "But I guess we can ask. He's very distracted since, well, the incident."

The fire mage shrugged with his single not bandaged shoulder, looking a little bit lost when he ripped off the mission on the request board. "I guess he's a little bit shocked that he missed ya drinkin' alcohol." The words were solemnly spoken, a weird contrast to the smug grin that lighted the expression of the other up. Happy winced at the reminder of the massive hangover a couple of days ago. "Don't wince. It's yar own fault for goin' outside and losin' him!"

"I already said that I'm sorry!"

"Well, that ain't enough!"

* * *

There was a haze settling over his mind, slowly inching to the forefront of every thought.

Yet, he crushed every information, every fact, that sprung into his brain with a speed that could have given a grown adult a whiplash. Everything had to be thrown away, had to be burned down before it could take root into his long-term memory.

If not, he was sure, he would probably go insane.

Tsuna squished everything his Hyper Intuition gave to him while a light shimmer of sweat began to coat his forehead. An uncomfortable heat pooled inside his stomach like a small chimney, warming him inside out, and the boss-in-training felt his friends vainly reach out across more than millions of dimensions. Fuzzy images ran through his head, taunting him silently like the Dying Will Flames that brushed against his conciousness.

 _Come back._

They try to say.

Like a never ending mantra, they try to say _come back come back come back._

Tsuna stiftled a wince when his forehead throbbed with pain, his Hyper Intuition angrily and insistingly whispering. Breath hitching, he closed his eyes against the harsh spike of pain that travelled through his veins, feeling like an overcooked meal inside his own body. Thankfully, Natsu and Happy were out of the house, so it was a small blessing to not crumble in front of them and worry them in any way. Still, laying on the couch, skin clammy but not even sweaty, would make this blessing for naught if they smelled even a whiff of discomfort on him.

It wasn't even an episode, per se.

His Hyper Intuition was just–annoying.

So very much annoying since Nuts had disappeared, constantly providing information and facts, which weren't useless, quite the contary, but were so horribly headache-inducing that the boss-in-training had even missed Happy drinking alcohol.

Hyper Intuition plus magic, Tsuna had decided on that day, were not meant to be together.

Distantly, he wondered if one of his more nerdy and smart friends would find this discovery fascinating. The ability to look almost into the future, to predict things that would happen or could happen and to just know things like they were a fact of the world and not some weird and horrifying Eldritch Abomination. It was deniabily and terrifyingly powerful.

And completely wasted if the person in question lay immobile on the couch and feeling like it was an uncomfortably hot desert day.

Tsuna knew things now.

He knew that, sooner or later, he would grow insane if this information overload kept up and he knew that sealing his Hyper Intuition could be a temporary solution to this. However, at the same time, he knew that information was important. What if his Hyper Intuition could find a way back home? What if he had to wait, just a while longer, to find out that there was a way and he just had to grasp it, the magic and his Dying Will Flames, to break out of this world and reunite with his friends _that were begging and screaming for him to come back home–_

The brunette squished the thought, trampled on it like one would stomp on ants that have scattered. His Hyper Intuition quieted down just as fast, the constant pain becoming an almost silent thrum in the back of his skull.

Sighing, the boss-in-training released a hot breath of air.

What should he do?

"I don't even know anymore.." Tsuna muttered in Japanese, opening his eyes that he didn't know he had closed. At the back of his mind, he felt a quiet hum, the warm feeling of loverespectloyality following soon after. Even hundreds and hundreds of dimensions away, the harmonization between his friends was still a permanent companion through the months of settling into this strange, foreign world. The thought was comforting as it was exasperating. Still, he found himself smiling, whispering longingly, but not less fondly into the empty house, "You all.."

Thousands of dimensions away, even with the loss of his lion companion that still stung like a direct hit from his friend's tonfa, he wasn't alone. There were Natsu and Happy. Two people which even his Hyper Intuition couldn't criticise, because they were honestly and sincerely genuine. And if there was one thing that people like him needed inside their crazy and troublesome life, it was something genuine***.

The boss-in-training couldn't stop the half bitter and half giddy chuckle that escaped him. Was he lucky to find such amazing people or unlucky to find himself in such weird or insane situations?

Thinking back, ignoring the heavy feeling of guilt for missing the very obvious bottle of an alcoholic drink in Happy's paws, the brunette couldn't remember an occasion where they had wanted or expected something from him. Well, except maybe mother-henning, but that was getting kinda old.

In fact, he found himself feeling bad that he had the audaciety to think that he was all alone after the – depature – of Nuts.

Tsuna knew he couldn't trust every person he came across, his very suspicious and scary stalker lady a living proof of that. However, the boss-in-training knew that, even without a hundred and twenty percent charged Hyper Intuition, his two overseers – or dare he say it, friends? – were not of that category.

Maybe he should ask for.. help.

Maybe he should.

Tsuna thought that his friends, dozens of dimensions away, would've liked that.

 **xii**.

At the end, after successfully calming his Hyper Intuition down, the brunette didn't even have to wait for an opportunity to ask for help. The help came to _him_ , in form of a very annoyed cat and an endlessly grinning mage.

Lifting an eyebrow and not rising from the mediative pose that a friend of his tutor had taught him, the boss-in-training shot both of his overseers a dry look. When Natsu was grinning and Happy decidely not, the world was screaming that what they were about to do was a really stupid idea.

"How're ya doin'?" the other asked with a false lightness, both eyes twinkling mischieviously. Happy, who was flying next to his partner, gave a low, exasperating sounding sigh. Natsu didn't even twitch to look at the cat. "What're ya sittin' here for?"

"Cut the crap," Happy mumbled before he could answer, gaze lingering somewhere in the distance. The cat looked like he was waiting for the chaos to end and the brunette felt strangely symphatetic. Crazy people and their crazy ideas. "Just ask him already! I am having a headache–"

"Which's yar own fault!" the mage interrupted in a sing-song. The boss-in-training tried to resist the urge to smile, even if he still felt kinda guilty for letting something like that happen. "Don't take things from strangers!"

Happy continuend on as if he hadn't been interrupted. "And your stalling is not helping." And as if to finish the other off, the cat added slyly, "I could tell him that you want to stop the lun–"

The fire mage interrupted the other once more, but the brunette couldn't understand a word he was saying. The sheer speed the words were spewed out was terrifying. And loud. Alas, Tsuna was pretty sure that he didn't want to know what Natsu was saying, because the sly grin Happy had been wearing wiped itself into a look of embarrassed outrage.

"You–!" Aaaaaand that stopped any futher understanding of this world's language with Happy copying the sheer speed of glibberish words mixed together.

Tsuna was pretty sure that they were insulting each other or, at least, trying to defend themselves with insults. It didn't help that the fire mage had stopped signing the words he was saying out of habit, successfully leaving him in the dark. With how both of them turned to each other, their bodies tensed like a spring, just said that they were embarrassed and angry about it, while the words they spoke just told that they were angry enough to yell at each other. Additionally, the frowns and twitches on their faces spoke of well-hidden amusement that was disguised behind mocking smiles.

Their arguments, or more like spurts of aggression, were like always not really sincere.

 _Well_ , the boss-in-training signed to absolutely no one, carefully forming each word, so that it couldn't be possibly misunderstood, _at least, you two are more energetic than usual._

Surprisingly, Natsu stopped his tirade in the middle of the sentence and shot him an unimpressed glare. Tsuna was unfazed by the glare by now, so he just stared innocently back. "Ya're not stoppin', are ya?" the fire mage asked gruffly, though his expression looked like he was going to die any second now. "Happy said that ya're–"

The other proceded to say a word that he had never heard or read. The boss-in-training couldn't help the perplexed furrow of his forehead that spoke of his confusion. "Uh..?"

"He does not know that word yet, stupid," Happy drawled, slow enough to understand again, and gave Natsu a look that the brunette couldn't really deciper. "A synonym for it.. Aye, maybe 'hungry' is a good word?"

"Just 'cuz ya want fish doesn't mean that he's also hungry!" Natsu yelled to the cat and then abruptly turned to him with an intense, focused expression. Tsuna surpressed his reflex to back away. "Another word for it is 'sad', I guess.. Happy said that ya look sad while cookin'." A pause, in which the boss-in-training felt noticably uncomfortable. That the other was staring at him, sympathy in his expression as obvious as the sun, wasn't helping. Tsuna felt his throat contract painfully with the amount of concern and trust he saw in these eyes. "Is it true? Cookin' makes ya sad?"

"N-No." The brunette almost choked the word out, the truth tasting expecially bitter. A lie wouldn't help diffuse the tension that had fallen like a blanket over them. Tsuna was sure that he felt more relieved than his friends as they slumped over. Their relief was contagious as it was funny. "I cook. For uh, family," he elaborated carefully and smiled when they perked up. The unspoken questions of 'where is your family?' and 'why does this make you look like that?' stayed through the air. "Just family."

"That means we are family, too!"

The brunette smiled thinly as the cat jumped excitedly up and down. "Yeah.. They are."

"Alright!" Natsu pumped a fist into the air, small jets of fire escaping his mouth like a flamethrower. A grin split his mouth into an impossible wide shape. "That means, as a family, ya're gonna accompany us to a mission!"

Tsuna felt his insides freeze.

What?

"Wha..?"

"A monster capture," Happy informed smugly, pointing a paw into the fire mage's direction. A look that screamed 'i told you!' was plastered all over his expression while the person in question sent a heated glare back. And as he noticed their reaction with half of his attention, the boss-in-training tried not keel over with how his Hyper Intuition cried in alarm that this mission was a horrible, horrible idea. "We are going to capture a monster!"

A pulse.

Tsuna stiftled a yelp.

An image of a dark form approaching them, hidden under the thickness of leaves, flashed through his mind like a lightning strike.

And then, his limbs clambed up as something in his chest twisted and squeezed like a vice. The brunette tried to open his mouth, tried take a breath, tried to force his lungs to work, but the attempt seemed in vain when all he took in was a choked up gasp of absolutely nothing. He didn't even look at Happy or Natsu as all he could focus on was to breath. The sounds and smells of forest were not there anymore, just the constricting agony of his insides. The boss-in-training felt a shiver crawling on his back, barely surpressing a full-out shudder that would wrack his whole body.

Dread pooled in his stomach, sweat tickling along his temple and his sight turned blurry around the edges. An undescribable feeling of anxiety and fear washed over his senses, almost choking up any resemblance of compursure he could scrape. Tsuna wanted to form a tactic, a plan, a focus, anything–!

And then, it dawned on him like a stray thought.

 _I'm going to die. No, I'm dying. I'm dying, I'm dying! I'm–_

However, suddenly, the pain and the squeeze and the discomfort and the twisting and his blaring Hyper Intuition vanished.

Tsuna took a half startled gasp, half relieved breath in, and then fell ungracelessly to his knees. He ignored the pain in his knees as his whole being ached like after a fight to the death. But more than that, his heart thumped more loudly in his ears than ever before. Distantly, the brunette was aware that he was being fussed over, but that sensation was being overthrown by the scaling hot energy that filled his heart to the brim.

The brunette groaned.

The image of a dark form was replaced with a bright red dragon that roared into the sky. It played out like an old memory, fuzzy around the edges and filled with strong emotions, and Tsuna bit back a startled exclamation when he saw a young boy waving at the dragon, eyes filled with awe and pride. A feeling of guilt tried to find a way into his conciousness, but he batted the emotion clumsily away. This memory, this feeling, wasn't _his_.

However, the memory persisted. It clung onto his Sky Flames like a leech, trying to find a way into his tightly woven energy and memories that were shared with a harmonization. The boss-in-training wanted to force the hot energy away, out of his soul, into the world of earth energy and magic. With a forceful yank, the brunette batted the hot energy away like an unruly child. And then, to his surprise, the hot energy inside his soul abruptly stilled. Even the memory of the dragon and the boy disappeared without a fuss.

Perplexed, he cautiously led the hot energy out of his soul, feeling slightly apprehensive when it didn't even stir to cause harm. Still, the relief was real when it finally left his body and harmlessly dissolved into a large mass of pure magic. With a mental jerk, he ignored the various furious or curious emotions of his friends, neatly exiting his own mind. Tsuna re-entered his physical body and shrieked in alarm when he saw Happy leaning over his face with a half worried, half annoyed expression and a distinct lack of Natsu. "H.. Happy?"

"You suck, Tsuna," Happy answered, voice completely deadpan even though his expression betrayed nothing but pure concern. The brunette winced. Ouch. "You really, really suck."

To his own surprise, he didn't even find himself disagreeing to the cat's words. Quite the contary, actually. His life sucked, his friends plus family sucked and he sucked even more. Simple logic, really. So the boss-in-training just nodded, masterfully ignoring the incredulous look of Happy. "Okay."

"Right.." the other whispered as if he was dealing with a crazy, crazy person.

Tsuna looked carefully around, noting the scorched ground and the distinct smell of sulfur that penetrated the air. "Where's Natsu? He's okay..?"

"Oh, he is fine," the cat assured, a grim look flashing through his eyes that didn't even start an attempt to relax the brunette, because the question wasn't even close to being answered. "However, I think he saw something weird." At his perplexed glance, the blue cat eleborated further, "Natsu said something about white wings and white hair. Did you do.. something?"

White wings and white hair. Tsuna's eyes widened and he surpressed his almost blurted out 'Byakuran?', mentally telling himself that he would deal with that information _later_.

Happy's expression didn't close off when he asked that question and saw his expression, but it was a close thing. Tsuna certainly felt like his sins crawled on his back****. "I-I did not anything..!" he hastily denied, sweating, knowing it _was_ technically true. _He_ didn't do anything, but _Natsu_ certainly did, if the weird memories said anything. Frowning, he repeated, "Where's he? I want talk.."

"About what happened?" Happy's expression didn't change from his half closed-off state that it was even unnerving. The boss-in-training nodded, intently listening for his surpressed Hyper Intuition that _maybe_ warned him if something happened. "I see," he said, nodding solemnly, and Tsuna wondered if the cat really understood what he meant with 'talk about what happened' or misunderstood something. But before he could ask, the other opened his mouth, "Before you go, I want to ask something."

"Okay..?" Tsuna gulped, almost wishing for any alarm clocks his Hyper Intuition would send. Alas, it stayed stubbornly silent. "What is it?"

"What did you see?"

》 _to be continued_..《

 _ **AN** : well, the story "makin fire" is being crossposted (by me, obviously) on AO3, and wattpad. on AO3 is my name Kayusa, on is the name Nelasu and on wattpad is the name Elifizia. so, if you see someone else posting this, then it would be someone else._

 _*the strange creature inside the water is a request that is really inside the animu. six-hundred thousand jewels is also "canon" in the animu. check "10 things you probably missed in fairy tail" out in YT if ya don't believe me_

 _**packed lunches; in chapter four, 27 started to make natsu and happy lunches as an apology 'cuz he didn't notice that someone gave happy alcohol. 'cuz of that both of them were reminded of lisanna who is obviously dead for them. so they were out of it at the end of chapter four._

 _***reference to Oregairu where 8man wants something "genuine"_

 _****undertale reference where the flower text says that "you felt your sins crawling on your back" while fighting someone . i'm still losing, btw._


	7. No lyin'

**Hi! Sorry for the delay. You readers have to suck it up, though. Luv you!**

 **Ah, and somebody asked me if I'm a native English speaker. Nah, I'm not a native English speaker. Would have been nice. No checking if I somehow wrote that word wrong. I swear, my mother tongue's wayyyyy easier to write. Anyway, thanks for reading this!**

* * *

 **xiii**.

"No, it can't be.."

Gray looked up from where he lounged between some guild members, curiously glancing, like some people nearby, at their resident Dragon Slayer when he uttered those breathlessly spoken words. An uneasy hush fell over the guild hall, silencing most conversations throughout the room and the ice mage steadfastly ignored the lingering trepidation that crawled inside his stomach with how fast the relaxing atmosphere dropped.

Natsu didn't seem to notice how more than twenty eyes turned to him, dazely staring at the blue cat who sported a guilty and shame-filled expression. It didn't help that Gray could see that Natsu's arms were crossed in a familiar defensive stance, a prominent frown darkening his features into harsh and stony lines.

"Stop jokin', Happy," the fire mage demanded with seriousness, but Gray could hear the fear that coated the demand like an invisible shield. A shield that started to crack and litter when Happy's only response was a soft shake of his head. "Ya can't.." The seriousness in his voice seeped away and made place for bare devastation. "Where.. Where's he?" The fire mage lurched forward, clasping shaking, desperate hands onto the blue cat's arms. "Where's _Tsuna_?"

The name didn't ring a bell, he mused with a concern he would later deny, softly wringing his hands under the table when no immidiate answer broke the painful silence. It didn't even looked like Happy would answer any time soon, rapid and shallow breathing making his chest rise up and down.

"What're you two talking about?" Natsu's and Happy's and everybody else's head snapped to the side, everybody's expressions frozen, and Gray noticed with a start that he had been the one who had broken the silence with this question. With a splutter, he hastily added, "I-I mean.. What did Happy do this time?"

"None of yar damn business."

Numerous people nearby retreated from the fire mage with a flinch.

They must have noticed that Natsu's magic output had risen to an alarming degree. Mutter filled the guildhall, loud but almost incomprehensible, and the ice mage found himself with a muted sense of shock and a shortage of breath. It was as if his world grayed out a little, as if someone had sucker punched him into the gut, as if something was looking him into the eye with the intent to _kill_.

Meeting these fury and misery filled eyes of his fellow guildmate – eyes that he saw inside the mirror on particular bad days – was like a slap to the face.

Gray's lip involuntarily curled even if he felt nauseous, even if he felt his nails biting into his skin with the strength of his clenched fists.

Eyes like that were _dangerous_.

"What, did someone best you in a fight, flame-brain?" he taunted with a smug sneer, slowly standing up from his seat. The other didn't even twitch, staying as still as a statue. Gray crinkled his nose with strain to hold his act, but he successfully swaggered forward without acknowledging Happy's apologetic glance. Natsu's unholy glare would have surely burned through any apology he could come up with now. "Or did Happy make this Tsuna person run away? Is that why you're whining?"

A beat.

Everyone scurried away like death on their heels.

..

..

Two beats.

Somehow, they managed to make the atmosphere more intense with their furious whispers and mutters. It was honestly impressive.

..

..

Three beats.

The ice mage mentally braced himself for impact, for apocalypse, for screaming, for a pummeling of a lifetime while outwardly maintaining a confident smirk. Natsu would take the bait, would take out his helplessness and–

The door was thrown open. "Stop this nonsense!"

Or not.

Gray risked a glance to the door and regretted it instantly at the same milisecond. A look at his rival showed the same result. Both of them looked downright pissed.

"H-Hey Erza," he greeted with a gulp as he looked at his fellow guildmate. Erza's armor hugged her figure, the water that dripped from it a stark contrast to the dryness of her vivid red hair. "I– err. Good to see you again?"

"Gray. What is the meaning of this nonsense?" she boomed with furrowed brows, voice clear and sharp. She stood with crossed arms and a wide stance that spoke of her willingness to fight if someone dared to defy her. Gray tried not to sweat under Erza's glare, carefully looking to the side where he saw his rival bite his lip with frustration. "Well?"

Luckily, the need to answer was taken from him.

"Did you find him?" Happy asked instead, softly, voice cracking at the end like a dying flame. Everyone's head turned to the blue cat who had stayed silent throughout the entire situation. However, Happy's eyes were completely focused onto their red-haired Titania. "Did you find.. anything?"

Erza frowned, bordering on a frustrated scowl. "I did not find your friend, Happy. However, I can say with certainty that he is alive." She tilted her head, striding forward to stand beside the motionsless Natsu. When it looked like Happy wouldn't reply, her frown deepened and she added, "I found his jacket which he seemed to have lost. It is in tatters, but I–"

"Alright," Natsu interrupted not so motionless anymore and Gray saw the other sidestep a jab to the gut, followed by a slug that would have sent the fire mage into lala land if he hadn't dodged narrowly with said jacket in his hands. Gray would have been impressed if this action hadn't shown his rival's determined and frankly scary expression. Erza, on the other hand, scowled openly when the other danced out of her immediate range. "Can ya let me keep it? I wanna find 'im–"

"No!" a shrill voice called out, every guild member of Fairy Tail turning to the source. Happy's scream had halted every confused whisper, which resulted in another bout of uncomfortableness that washed over the ice mage. It wasn't often that something terrible happened where Natsu and Happy were at odds, so the sudden quietness was that shocking. Didn't change that it felt uneasy as hell, the ice mage mused absently. "You can't go out and search for him! He _saved_ me! And the monster is gone anyways–!"

Natsu prowled torward the doors, a stubborn tilt in his clenched muscles. Privately, Gray thought that the other looked pretty lonely with his back to them, shoulders squared defensively. At the side, he saw how Erza pursed her lips, but didn't pursue the other which was almost an agreement from her. "Ya expect me ta give up just 'cuz Erza said that he's probably alive somewhere?"

Happy bristled, fur standing on end. "I messed up, but he said–!"

"Tsuna's GONE!" the fire mage _shrieked_ , tilting his head just so that Gray could see Natsu's barred teeth and narrowed eyes and the downright murderous look in his eyes that spoke of violence, of murder and probably of genocide as well. " _He's gone!_ "

Twin jets of pure fire erupted from his clenched fists, darkening his profile into shadows that leeched any bright color away.

"He's gone and he ain't comin' back on his own!"

Gray heard the unspoken words that felt branded into his heart. An unhealed wound of loss and abandonment. Like Igneel. Like Lisanna.

"I'm goin' and I'll look for 'im myself!"

Nobody stopped him, including Erza with a torn look on her face, despite their reluctance to let him go. Gray couldn't muster any apology or excuse that would stop the other in his tracks.

Everybody in the guild saw his desperation.

To not lose another.

To try.

Reckless and fearless, but resolute in the end.

"And if ya try ta stop me, I'll pummel ya into the ground!"

* * *

Natsu barrelled through his door like an uncontrollable juggernaut, tearing some kind of material from the wall that had been kind of smelly anyway.

"Listen! You really, really can't–!"

He ignored Happy's desperate cries as he rummaged through some drawers, trying to ignore the itch that demanded that he should look to the side where probably some kind tools for cooking lay, wildly tossed around because Tsuna couldn't organize his stuff even if his life depended on it. With a growl, he yanked the thing that was blocking his hands way to a piece of paper out, clenching it in his fist and rising it high into the air to throw the piece into some dark corner–

"That's Tsuna's!" Happy exclaimed and suddenly he couldn't move.

Every muscle in his body locked up with these words. Not even in a restricting and uncontrollable way, but more into a reflexive way that he knew was just an instinctive response. Natsu even tried to move, but for some damn reason, the effort to lower his raised arm felt like a load of effort.

He had frozen up. Just because it was some kind of item from Tsuna.

Gray would have laughed his ass of, probably. Frozen up, what kind of reaction was that? Natsu pictured it in his mind and it helped fueling his anger at the prick. That bastard with his irritating taunts and bluffs.

"It's his.. rings?"

"What?" Natsu blurted out, anger vanishing like it hasn't been there for fifteen minutes. Instead, he felt a tsunami of emotion falling over him, too many unspoken words and too much of a mess to make sense of his own emotions. His tongue felt like it was stunned with Laxus lightning magic and he barely managed the rough, "Why?" that fell over his lips.

Happy perked up and turned to him with a hopeful expression that was completely out of place. "Do you think.. that Tsuna..?"

Natsu didn't think _anything_.

The other deflated with a sigh, unsurprised, looking to the side where a kettle lay. "I guess.. you can't really know that, can you?" He chuckled bitterly to himself. "I should've listened to him," Happy confessed with a humorless smile, not even acknowledging that the fire mage hadn't responded. Still, he turned to his partner, lowering his arm so that the rings dangled over the floor. "I didn't tell you or anyone for that matter, but Tsuna.. Before I went to the mission, he warned me, you know?"

The blue cat shrugged, tilting his head downwards.

"You wanted to be alone, because you saw this weird person, but Tsuna told me that he saw Igneel. He saw your memories, I guess," Happy mumbled, looking faintly ashamed with his lowered head and while fidgeting with his paws. The fire mage couldn't muster any emotion or apology. "After that, he warned me. 'The mission will end badly. Don't go. Let's take another one' he said. I-I thought he was being wimpy again," the cat confessed nervously, tensing as if preparing for a tongue-lashing or a punch or whatever he would've done if he could move with the rising ringing inside his ears. "But because of his warning, I took Erza with me. I wanted to show him that missions were harmless. And even though it had been your idea, I wanted to reinforce it."

"It's not yar fault," Natsu grinded out between his clenched teeth and locked jaw, surpressing the urge to go and throttle Erza quite magnificently. The shrill sound inside his ears hadn't let up, but he couldn't let the other bear such heavy guilt without reassuring him. "I.. I wouldn't have listened, either."

"Liar," his partner scoffed, mouth quirking up on the side. "You would have. Tsuna was weird and wimpy, but he was more cool and more a little shit than wimpy to you. Don't try to deny it," Happy hastily added before he could say anything, shrugging with his shoulders, and Natsu saw how the blue cat heavily swallowed. "So, I messed up. The monster had been easy to find with Erza and Tsuna, but.. the fight had been different."

The fire mage opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out. There was nothing to say to that. Or maybe he couldn't talk anymore with how the last day and this day turned into complete disasters. First off, Tsuna collapsed and didn't get up and then, second, Happy, Erza and Tsuna were no where to be found. And now, his charge was gone. Natsu didn't know why, but the sheer thought made the task to talk even more harder and less appealing than before. Happy must have seen that somehow on his face, because the cat managed a thin smile that didn't even reach his eyes.

"Tsuna saved me before the monster got me. I ran back. I.." The blue cat raised his head where fat tears rolled down his cheeks, staining the green bandanna with dark marks. Natsu observed how his lip quivered like a leaf, the thick gleam of tears in his eyes showcasting his emotions for the world to see. The other desperatly breathed in, a hitch tearing through him, followed by a sob that rattled his whole body, "I.. I..! I've doomed him! He's _gone_! I thought everything would be alright with Erza, because she's our strongest, but I couldn't.. I couldn't protect even a single person.."

"Ya did yar best," he said sincerely, but even to his ringing ears, it sounded hollow.

Happy, in response, laughed bitterly. "My best was never enough."

* * *

White light wasn't what the white-haired boss expected while he waited for the other to arrive.

Byakuran smiled, amused, leaning a little bit back to look carefully at the condition of his friend. "You don't do things by halves, do you, Tsunayoshi?

Raspy coughing answered him as the other's whole body trembed with faint tremors. Tsuna lay hunched over on all fours, head bowed and brown mane obscuring any expression. Still, the state of the other spoke more than a thousand words.

"You fought something? I say, I'm disappointed that you lost."

"..." Predictibly, the brunette didn't deem an answer to that. No surprise here, because the white-haired boss could see his clenched teeth and the water dripping of his form.

"But it's good that you're here!" Byakuran grinned, giving an unnecessary extravagant gesture throughout the white nothingness that surrounded them. He swaggered with enthusiasm forward, stopping nearby the fallen form of his boss. "You see, I finally managed to get in contact with you as you can see. How long were you in this world?"

Tsuna looked up and held three shaking fingers up. The water dripped onto the white floor. "M-Months.."

"Really?" Byakuran lip curled in amusement. Parallel worlds were funny like that. Different universes, compared to that, were downright hilarious. "Three months equal three days? I'm impressed." Tsuna's expression looked decidely unamused. And unimpressed. Seemed like the beating he got must have been pretty bad for the brunette to not even crack an unsure smile. The white-haired boss shrugged and subtly leaned forward to glance at the pale complexion of his friend. "You look like you went through a grinder. Your friends look worse, though."

Finally, the other cracked a smile. "Really?" he echoed with disbelief, somehow managing to sound exasperated and relieved at the same time. Which was weird, because the brunette probably knew that the others were getting progressively crazy. Or crazier. "What a-about the others?"

"They try their best," Byakuran replied vaguely and ignored Tsuna's confused, " _What does that mean?_ " with practised ease. No need to burden his boss with any needless thoughts. The brunette let it slide, fortunately. "So, what's with your Flames? They feel quite.. interesting."

"Magic's empowering t-them," the brunette muttered, words choppy, looking like a pouting lion which was denied their weekly snack. His unusually flat and dripping wet hair just added to that expression. "And it's driving my intuition crazy. I can't concentrate a-and it's almost like looking through a kaleidoscope between the p-past and the present."

The white-haired boss nodded sagely, a humorless smile briefly gracing his lips, "Now you know how it feels for Yuni, Aria and I."

Grimacing, his boss gingerly cradled his head. "How do I.. stop it? Or prevent it from making me commit h-homicide?"

"You don't."

"That's not helpful at all!" Tsuna shouted with a wild look in his eyes, sitting up from his position and spraying water everywhere. "I can't just l-live with it! It will drive me mad! I think that I _am_ already mad!"

Byakuran chuckled at this. "Just seal your intuition away, silly. Sho and everyone else will find you regardless. Shouldn't be a problem, right?"

" _You're_ not helpful a-at all!" the other insisted with favor, but the smile on his lips said otherwise. It felt good to fall back on old habits, the white-haired boss admitted privately. And maybe or perhaps he had missed the brown-haired boss a little bit. Huffing, Tsuna arched an eyebrow into the white nothingness. "Where are w-we anyway?"

"Inside the Vongola Ring."

Tsuna looked flabbergasted. "How? I don't have any ring with m-me!"

"Well," he started, shrugging with a smirk, "for all we know and as far as I know, the Vongola Ring _is_ basically you."

"A-And what is that supposed to mea–"

"Anyway," Byakuran interrupted, this time on purpose, giving his boss a knowing look, "why did you lose to whatever had smacked you into the Vongola Ring?"

Tsuna, to his credit, just blushed, obviously embarassed. "I-I.. I had to save him," he muttered and curled into himself as if preparing for a hit. "I knew something bad would happen and I warned him, but I mean.."

The other trailed off. Byakuran frowned, feeling disgust crawling up inside of him. "This person didn't believe you which prompted you to save them," the white-haired boss finished and tried not to feel too satisfied when the other flinched. "That was a stupid move, Tsunayoshi."

"I left my rings with my friend who _you_ have talked with–!"

"Which makes you almost as weak as you were before you received the ring!" Byakuran snapped harshly, striding forward, which prompted the other to crane his neck uncomfortably up to look at him. Tsuna's expression, as a response, suggested that he felt decidely guilty, worrying probably everyone, but not regretful. Figures. "What do you think you have accomplished with this stunt? You're in an unknown world without somebody to rely on!" Byakuran saw the other clench his fists. He frowned and, before he could even react to the distress of his boss, found himself eye to eye with burning orange eyes. "...!"

"Whose fault it is that I can't rely on _anybody_ here?" the other hissed out, an uncharacteristical snarl on his lips. Byakuran's mouth dried up at these words, the rebunkal dying on his lips at the sight of honest to god tears that shimmered on the edge of his boss' eyes. "Don't lie to me! Why did Reborn send me here, if it's not for his sadistic pleasure?" Tsuna's hands shot out, grasping his collar and pulling him forcibly down. It didn't even hurt, he noticed in alarm, the arms that could normally shatter boulders weak and fatigued instead. "What's happening in our world that I'm not allowed to know of?"

"..." Byakuran stayed silent.

There was nothing to say.

"..Why aren't you saying anything?" Tsuna asked quietly, the mix of desperation and anger not vanishing from his face, but the white-haired boss noticed the other's shaking hands. "Why.. Why're you helping them..? This isn't a multiuniversal issue, so why.." Sudden hands crawled up to his cheeks, softly grasping them. Byakuran resignely closed his eyes when the other's head tilted forward to rest on his forehead. "Why're you protecting me? I.. don't understand."

Byakuran didn't understand it, either. Why was he making such an effort to protect a single person who in reality existed more than a million times in various parallel universes? Did it matter? he had asked at the beginning, naive and hungry for more power, If everybody dies, there are still versions who are alive.

However, now he knew. Tsuna wasn't expendable and he wasn't replacable, either. No one was in reality, but the holders of the Sky Rings more than others to him. Byakuran knew that he would never find an exact replica of the person Aria, Yuni or Tsuna were now. He would never ever find them again. It was impossible. And it wasn't possible reviving humans, so he had to protect them. Had to, or else he would be all alone again – without Yuni or Tsuna and without somebody to understand.

What was power if all alone at the top of the world?

That was why Byakuran chuckled softly in response to his boss' question. Because even now, Tsuna didn't see his own worth. There wasn't anything to misunderstand. It was obvious. Being protected and to protect were two things on the same coin, after all.

"You don't have to understand, but please acknowledge that we're trying to do what we can to protect you." Byakuran brushed a hand through the other's hair who flinched slightly before relaxing and took a silent breath. He ignored the muttered, " _What're you giggling for?_ " expertely. "Have patience, will you? Simply trust us to resolve this without you, for once."

"I want to help," Tsuna insisted with fervor, for what felt like the hundredth time for the white-haired boss, but his boss' voice came out a tad too weak and a tad too woobly, confusion and hurt underlining every word. Byakuran tried to hide his wince, silently musing, knowing, that it was his fault that the other was miserable and desperate like that; for it was him who sent the other to this world, even if he wasn't the one who had ordered for it. However, if Tsuna saw his guilt or shame or wince, he didn't say anything and instead merely, as if repeating a fact, stated, "I want.. to be by the others side."

》 _to be continued_..《

 **small bonus for the isekai hype 'cuz no references, massive delay and wayyyy too serious:**

"Why didn't you just go ahead and reincarnate me into this w-world?" Tsuna questioned out of nowhere with a wet sniff, turning away from the other who blanched in shock.

"Why do you have the belief that I'm able to send someone's whole soul into another world?" Byakuran chuckled almost nervously and gestured to himself, coincidently catching the light that reflected off his shiny Mare Ring. "Do I look like I'm some kind of magus? I'm a mafioso, Tsunayoshi! Not even Vongola Primo or Checkerface would be able to do that!"

The boss-in-training huffed, completely ignoring the other's words. "Could have just reincarnated me into something silly," he muttered and then paused, conteptive. Water dripped slowly on the floor. "Probably something a-as silly as a slime or a vending machine. A hotdog or an onsen would've been just as silly."

"That's ridiculous. You're being unreasonable," the white-haired boss scolded softly, even adopting a look of mock hurt because of the accusations. "I wouldn't do something cruel as that. Aria or Yuni would kill me!"

"You would probably name it something like 'That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Vending Machine' or 'Reborn as a Slime, I Now Wander The Dungeon' or something similar."

Tsuna glimpsed how the other surpressed a desperate snort that would surely erupt into full-blown laughter. "T-That's impossible for me," he pressed tightly out. "I'm not a god, you know."

"Could've fooled me."


End file.
